


The Pines vs. the future

by Polaris_Stella



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Choices, Family, Family Drama, Gen, Minor Violence, Next Generation, Paranoid Dipper, Plans For The Future, Possession, Post-Canon, Reunions, Separated Twins, The Mindscape, The Truth Hurts, Twin parallels, West Coast Tech, bad memories, mr. and mrs. Pines finds out the truth, remade journals, the truth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-07-20 02:59:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7387828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polaris_Stella/pseuds/Polaris_Stella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper and Mabel have finally finished high school.<br/>They are planning to move to Gravity falls, where Dipper finally will take Fords apprenticeship, while Mabel is going to start her own business, with help from gruncle Stan.</p><p>But things doesn’t go as planed, when Dipper receives a scholarship for a certain university.</p><p>Things take a turn for the worse, when a certain one-eyed dream-demon returns!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me

Mabel stretched her neck to look around. She saw many familiar faces, here among her parents, but not the ones she was looking for. She looked down at her feet, with a sigh. "Why aren't they here? They promised to come," she asked, without looking at her twin brother.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they are on their way. They have probably just got stuck in the traffic or something like that," Dipper answered. He prayed silently that he was right. Today wasn't the day, Mabel was supposed to be sad. He didn't want his sister to be sad at all, of course, but it was today they were going to graduate from high school!

After four years of hard work, they had finally made it to today, and they were supposed to be happy and celebrate. And their gruncles from Gravity Falls was supposed to be here and celebrate with them! Great uncle Ford usually made sure that Stan and himself were punctual, but today, of all days, they had to be late!

Dipper turned around, to look at the families. He had gotten a head taller than his sister, over the years and didn't need to stand on his toes, to make eye contact with their mother who smiled. Dipper smiled back but his smile got twice as big when his eyes caught on four familiar faces. "Mabel," he said giving his sister a light slap on her upper arm and pointed down towards their parents, where Ford, Stan, Wendy, and Soos, were about to sit down. "Look!"

Mabel followed her twin's gaze and gasped. "Oh my gosh! Dipper they made it! They made it!" she cheered, as she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

"I know!" Dipper answered, barely able to keep his own happiness down. Mabel let go of him and they made the handshake, they had made up when they were kids: "Blib blob blubbedyblup, twins!"

Dipper was happy, that they never gave up on their childish handshake. And he was happy, that he had decided to take high school, with his twin sister. Of course, it would have been great, to become Great Uncle Fords apprentice, already when he was twelve, but he wouldn't have missed the high school years with his sister, for the world. It had been a crazy ride, with both good and bad times, but it had all been worth it.

The in-march music started to play, and the ceremony began.

O*o*o*

"Gruncle Stan!" Mabel yelled as she ran towards her family.

Stan caught her in the embrace. "Hey there, sweetie!"

Dipper couldn't possibly blame her. They hadn't seen their gruncles since last summer. Of course, they had been video-chatting, a couple of times, but it wasn't easy when their gruncles were out on the Stan o' War, and they had to study.

Dipper himself was given a friendly and proud handshake from Ford. He had never really been as big a hugger, as his twin brother, but he would always hug back if someone hugged him first.

"Good to see you, nerd," Stan said after he had hugged Dipper too.

"You too, fraud," Dipper answered.

"Dipper!" his mother scolded him, cheeks turning red.

"Don't worry about it, Mrs. Pines. They are like this, like all the time. Besides, Stan deserves it."

"Thanks, Wendy," Dipper answered before he hugged his older friend (and old crush).

"It's good to see you, man," Wendy said. She took his student cap off and switched it with his old pine-tree cap. "That's better." She placed the student cap on her own head. It was kind of a ritual they had together: trading their hats when they saw each other after a long time, and trade back when they said goodbye. They had done this every summer when the twins came to Gravity Falls.

O*o*o*

They all went back to where Dipper and Mabel lived with their parents to celebrate. Their mother – Patricia had prepared a big and special meal for the two graduated twins and their friends and uncles. It was a great time, where they exchanged stories:

"It was an amazing sight," Ford explained. "The whale was far away from the boat, but we were still able to see when it jumped up from the water!"

"Yeah, but that damned fish, send a heck of wave towards the ship, making everything fall down from the shelves!" Stan growled.

Ford considered if he should correct his brother, but decided, that he rather shouldn't. "It wasn't that hard to clean it up again," he said instead.

"No, but my stew was simmering…" Stan growled.

The family laughed, but they probably wouldn't do that if they had known that Ford had used the remaining of the food to make something. Stan never really figured out what it was, but it had given him the worst food poisoning, he ever had had!

"So, Soos how is Melody?" Dipper asked, trying to change the subject before they risked the older pair of twins to get into a fight. Over the last five years, the two of them had managed to regain most of the close relationship they had had, when they were young, but they could still get into some intense fights.

"Oh, she is good, man. I should tell you congratulations and say that she is sorry, that she couldn't come," Soos answered.

"Yeah, but she has gotten really big already, dude. I keep thinking that it could happen any day now!" Wendy said.

"What?! You think so? But the doctor-dude said that it wouldn't happen before five months!" Soos suddenly looked like he had realized that he was about to miss something very important.

"Relax, dude, I'm just messing with you!"

Dipper and Mabel exchanged confused looks. "What are you two talking about?" Mabel asked.

"Oh what? Soos, haven't you told them?" Wendy asked.

"Well, erh, no… but Melody didn't want anybody to know before we were sure and… and I didn't really know how to say it. It's not really normal talk, you know, dude…"

Suddenly Mabel screamed a fan-girl scream, when she realized, what they were talking about, and she looked like she was ready to jump across the table to hug him. "OH MY GOSH! SOOOS! YOU ARE GOING TO BE A DADDY!"

"Soos! Congratulations!" Dipper smiled. He couldn't believe it. The insecure guy, who barely had been able to ask a girl out, was now going to have a child. This was just amazing.

"Thanks, dudes, but I have to admit, that I'm a little nervous… What if I don't know how to be a good dad?" Even though Stan sort of had replaced Soos' real father, he was still scared that he would let down his own son… or daughter.

"Don't you worry about that," Brian Pines said. "Nobody really knows how to be a father, but when you first get to hold your child, it will come naturally!"

"Thanks, dude. I hope I can do just as good a job, as you did with Mabel and Dipper!"

"You have nothing to worry about, Soos," Patricia said. "A child is like a gift from life."

"Dude! We totally forgot about your presents!" Wendy exclaimed. She quickly got up from her chair and ran out to the car, and came back with her arms full of presents, for the twins!

Both Soos and Wendy gave Dipper books, while Mabel got gift cards for creative shops for decoration and close.

From Ford, Mabel got an encyclopedia about animals, which she had developed a growing interest for and Dipper got a pair of boxing gloves from Stan (he had started to teach him boxing skills the last couple of years and he thought that it was about time that he got his own pair of gloves!)

Mabel opened her gift from gruncle Stan and found some black, and pink fabricant and also a pink fez. At the same time, Dipper opened his gift from Great Uncle Ford and was very surprised when he found three new copies of the journals, and a fourth journal, with a pine-tree on the cover and its blank pages.

"Wauw, thanks, Great Uncle Ford!" Dipper said as he looked through the journals. It was clear that Ford had rewritten almost all of the research, with much more order, than the originals.

"What are those books about, Dipper?" Brian asked. "It's most of the research Great Uncle Ford has made since he moved to Gravity falls," Dipper explained. "With my additions."

"You know, I never really understood what you have been researching," their mother said. "May I see it?"

Dipper instantly closed the journal, as his mother reached for it. "Actually, I don't think you would understand it," he said quickly, as his parents looked at him in surprise. "You see, it's filled with biological and scientific terms, and complicated diagrams..."

"Yeah, you would have to be a total nerd, like those two, to understand, half of it," Stan said.

"Well, maybe you could try to explain it in a language, that us `normal´ people would understand?" Brian suggested.

"Yeah…" Dipper said. He began to feel like he was at some kind of interrogation. No, he couldn't panic. He would just have to do as Stan had taught him: breathe and keep it cool when you are under pressure (not that Stan was too good at that himself). "It's basically about the animals, that lives in the forest."

"Really? You can write three book just about the animals, that lives in the forest?" Patricia asked.

"Oh yes," Ford said. "You see, the circumstance in Gravity Falls has forced the animals to adapt very differently than they normally would. For example, there is a snake and a badger that have become mates."

The parents exchanged looks. "Well, then that must be something for you too, Mabel," Patricia said. She knew that Dipper had been studying a little with Stanford, but not Mabel, who claimed that the stuff was too boring and nerdy.

"Pfft, no," Mabel said, waving her hand towards her parents. "I love animals and all, but I'm not all nerdy about it. I'm gonna let Dipper be the researching apprentice, while I'm gonna go in a whole other direction." She placed the fez on the top of her head. "How do I look?"

"Like a businesswoman, ready to scam the whole world," Dipper answered, with Wendy and Soos nodding in agreement.

"Oh, I'm gonna teach her that, and much more!" Stan stated confidently.

"Mabel, did you say: `researching apprentice´? What do you mean by that?" their mother asked.

"Oh, man, we never got to tell you," Dipper said. "Well Great Uncle Ford offered me an apprenticeship, a while ago, and I agree to take it when we finished high school."

"Yeah! And Gruncle Stan is going to teach me, how to become a businesswoman!" Mabel said.

"But what about college?" their father asked. "Oh we never applied to any colleges. We agreed to do this, about a year ago," Dipper said.

"Oh…" Patricia said. "But… well, we wanted it to be a surprise tonight, but in that case, we probably should have told you this before, Dipper."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your headmaster called us a couple of months ago, saying that with your grades, you would be able to get in everywhere. We assumed that you wanted to go to the best school possible, so we gave your headmaster permission to contact the school," Brian said.

"This letter came a couple of days ago," Patricia said, handing her son a large envelope. "Even though you are going to apply a little late, your headmaster was sure, that you could get in."

Dipper took the envelope from his mother and opened it. It was filled with brochures and other papers. Dipper laid the brochures on the table and began to read the actual letter. As he read further down the paper, his eyes grew bigger and his mouth fell open. He then read it again. And again. He kept rereading the sentences, that wouldn't really penetrate into his head.

Mabel took one of the brochures and gasped when she read the headline. She then handed it to Gruncle Ford. "Isn't this…?"

Ford took the brochure. His eyes got almost as big as Dipper's. "It is indeed, Mabel," he mumbled before he looked at Dipper, who still kept rereading the letter. "Dipper? Have you gotten a scholarship, for West Coast Tech?!"

"Yeah…" he mumbled. The words were finally coming through. "Oh my gosh! I..I can't believe it!" West Coast tech… he had been accepted to the school, not even Great Uncle Ford had been able to get into.

"Congratulations, dude," Soos said.

"Yeah man, sounds great," Wendy cheered.

"T..this is amazing..." He could barely keep his excitement down until he looked up from the paper. Everybody around the table was smiling at him, trying to seem happy for him, but he could easily see the truth in their eyes, especially Mabel's. She really tried to hide it, but her disappointment, and something like fear, was shining through.

"And I'm definitely going to think about it," Dipper said in a more normal tone, as he folded the paper and put it back into the envelope.

"Think about it? But Dipper… It's such a huge opportunity…" his mom said.

"I know that, mom. That's why I'm going to think about it. I have still got a week before I have to answer," Dipper said and stuffed the rest of the documents and brochures back in the envelope.

"Yeah, but…"

"Excuse me, but was it something about dessert?" Wendy cut her off.


	2. Chapter 2

Stan kept tossing and turning in the hotel bed. It wasn't the bed, which was the problem; it was actually pretty comfortable for at hotel bed, it wasn't the heat either. It was that damned letter! Dipper had gotten accepted to West Coast tech. Stanford's dream school.

As Patricia said, it was a great opportunity for the kid. Stan should be happy for him. The kid was smart, he could come far with whatever education that school could give him.

But Stan wasn't happy, he was… scared. No, he wasn't really scared but… okay yes, he was scared. He was scared about what this would do to Dipper and Mabel's relationship. Through the summers the kids had spent in Gravity Falls, he had never seen anything like their friendship. Except for the friendship he had had with his brother. Before he blew it. Before he was stupid enough to break Fords machine and their relationship. Of course, he knew that Mabel would never do anything to ruin Dipper's opportunity to get in there.

Yes she had accidentally made a deal with Bill, when she was twelve when Ford had offered Dipper the apprenticeship, but Mabel hadn't done that, to ruin anything for Dipper, she just wanted to stay in Gravity Falls too. After the kids had started high school, they had made an agreement: the kids would finish high school, and after that, they would move to Gravity Falls, where Ford could teach Dipper his science stuff, and Stan would teach Mabel how to survive in the business world!

Now their plans were ruined. Or well: not entirely. Mabel could still come with them. But Stan knew that it wouldn't be the same. Mabel would try to be happy, but he knew that she would be missing her brother all the time. Stan wouldn't be surprised if Mabel would decide to move with Dipper, and he would understand that. He just hoped that both of them would make the right decision.

Stan wasn't the only one, who had trouble sleeping. Dipper was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. A couple of times he would also look at the envelope on his nightstand. He still had trouble to really believe that it was true, but he had no trouble, understanding what the consequences would be whether the said yes or not:

If he said no, he might renunciation a huge opportunity for his future. He could be anything he ever wanted, with the education West Coast Tech could give him. But if he said yes, it would mean, that he wouldn't move to Gravity Falls, he wouldn't become Great Uncle Fords apprentice or reunite with his friends… and he would be separated from Mabel.

He turned his head to look at the other side of the room, only to find, that there was no other bed. It was kind of funny: Mabel had moved out of their room more than three years ago when both of them were about to enter their puberty, but he would still look over there when he couldn't sleep or was worried about something.

Dipper knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep, so he swung his legs over the side of the bed, and headed downstairs, to get a glass of water or something like that, just to do something...

He stopped when he came by the living room. The atmosphere in there had gotten really pressured after he had opened the letter. Also after that Wendy had helped him, by changing the subject, and everybody else had focused on the dessert and every other kind of subject, that didn't have anything to do with decisions on the future. Also between Dipper and his parents, it had almost been awkward, after that their friends and gruncles were gone to the hotel, not too far from where they lived. His mother had been about to say something when their father had told them that they could go to bed, if they were tired. Both of the twins had taken the opportunity and ran upstairs before their mother could argue.

Dipper continued towards the kitchen, to find that the lights were on, and Mabel and Waddels were sitting at the table, with the back turned to him.

"So you can't sleep either, huh?" Dipper asked, careful not to startle her, as he walked to her side.

"Nope," Mabel answered. "So we decided to go on a little time travel." She patted one of the pages in her scrapbook, which was lying open on the book in front of her, shoving the page with the picture of Stan and Mabel stealing fish from someone else's fishing-net.

"Mind if I join you?"

"You know it, bro-bro." Dipper sat down on the chair beside her and looked through the pictures of their first trip to Gravity Falls. "Hey remember that?" Dipper asked and pointed at a picture, where Stan was trying to put a worm on a hook, and Mabel was covering his eyes.

"Of course I do. It was a fun day!"

"Yeah…" Dipper mumbled. He remembered how gruncle Stan had wanted to take them fishing and just spend some quality time with them, on family bonding day, but they had run of to try to find the Gravity Falls' Gobblewonker. Dipper was glad that they, at last, had realized that it was more important to spend time with Stan, but from time to time, he would still feel a bit guilty about it, after he had realized that gruncle Stans childhood dream was sailing around the world with his brother.

"Dipper?" Mabel said quietly.

"Yeah?"

Mabel hesitated before she let her gaze meet his. "If you want to go that university, I won't stand in your way."

"But what about our plans?" Dipper asked, thinking that Mabel's words sounded awfully familiar.

"We'll make it work: we can video-chat all the time, and you can come visit us every break. Just like we used to do…" Except that Dipper would be leaving her, behind in Gravity Falls every time he would have to go back to school… `No! You have to be supportive, Mabel!´ She told herself. `Dipper would do the same for you.´

"You would really be okay with it?" Dipper asked.

"Sure thing, bro-bro," Mabel answered with a big smile, hoping that he wouldn't be able to look through her.

"Thanks, Mabel." Dipper knew well enough that Mabel wasn't too happy about the situation, but she really tried to be happy for him. But even though he really appreciated that, it didn't make his decision any easier. "But I really don't know... I'm gonna need time to think about it."

"Dipper? Mabel?" The twins turned around, and saw their mother, standing in the doorway. "Why aren't you two in your beds?"

"We couldn't sleep," Mabel answered.

"Well, both of you should try anyway," Patricia said. "Otherwise you won't be able to get up tomorrow."

"You're probably right," Dipper said and stood up. "Come on. We don't want Wendy to wake us up again." Both he and Mabel remembered that morning, after a party, where Wendy had decided that the best way to get them out of bed, was by pouring a bucket of cold water over both of them.

Mabel grabbed her scrapbook and walked towards the doorway. "Good night, mom."

"Good night, sweetie." Patricia looked at her kids (and Waddels), as they walked back upstairs. She had always been so proud of them, for being so close. She had feared for the time when the two teens would grow apart like their great uncles had done. She had been glad that the day never seemed to come, but now she started to worry if they maybe were too close, and would end up getting in the way of each other. She feared that Dipper would choose to go to Gravity Falls, thinking that it was the right choice now, but in a couple of years realize that he could have gone much further if he had chosen to go to West Coast Tech, and maybe even end up blaming Mabel for his mistakes.

Patricia walked to the sink and took a glass of water. As she was drinking, she wondered why her kids had wanted to go to Gravity Falls every summer. Every time Brian or herself asked what they had been doing, it was always the same answers: "We went fishing", "We were hanging out with Wendy and her friends", "We helped Soos in the shop". Sure she understood that it could be fun for them when they were younger, but they were 17 by now. Knowing her children, Patricia had a feeling that there was something happening in that town, that her kids weren't telling her. She had had that feeling already after the first summer they had spend there when they had refused to show her the scrapbook Mabel had made. Every time Patricia had asked to see it, Mabel would always say that she had something she had to do or something like that. She had mentioned it to Brian before, but he just said that she shouldn't worry and that he used to keep secrets from his parents too, at that age.

But Patricia couldn't help but worry a little, every time her babies went to that town, she had never been to herself. Patricia walked upstairs, towards the bedroom, to do the same, as she had urged her kids to do: get some sleep. But one and a half hour later, she still hadn't been able to sleep. She kept seeing the look in Mabels eyes.

Brian or Dipper might not always be able to see it, while Mabel was good at hiding it, but Patricia could see the concern in her daughter's eyes. She had to talk to her. To tell her, that no matter what Dipper would choose, he would always be her brother and nothing could change that!

She knocked lightly on the door to her daughter's room, but there was no answer. Carefully she opened the door. Mabel and Waddels were sleeping peacefully in the bed.

Patricia sighted. She shouldn't wake her daughter up now, that she finally was asleep. She would just have to wait until tomorrow. She was about to go back to bed when she noticed that Mabel's arm was hanging over the bedside, and the scrapbook was lying on the floor.

Patricia knew that it probably would be wrong of her, to read it. Mabel and Dipper were so secretive about it, like it was a diary… But it wasn't a diary. It was a scrapbook. Just a little peek wouldn't hurt, would it? Maybe she would finally understand, what was so amazing about that Gravity Falls? She kneeled down and grabbed the pink book. She then walked out of the room, leaving the door half open.

She opened the scrapbook, on page one.


	3. Chapter 3

"All right, does everyone remember the agreement?" Wendy asked, when Soos stopped the car in front of Dipper and Mabels home. "Yeah, yeah. It's Dipper's own decision, no matter if he wants to go to the school or not," Stan said.

"And?"

"And we won't try to influence his choice with our own opinions or wishes, unless he specifically asks for it," Ford said.

"Good. Now let's go in," Wendy said and jumped out of the car. Hopefully those goofy old men, would be able to stick to their word. They only had tree more days in Piedmont and she wanted to be able to enjoy it no matter if the twins decided to go with them to Gravity Falls, as they had planned or not. Wendy walked to the front door, with the others not far behind her. She knocked on the door, shouting: "'Morning, dogs!"

They all waited, looking at the door, but no one opened. Wendy rang the doorbell again and also knocked on the door, but there was still no reaction.

"Maybe they are still asleep?" Ford suggested.

"Yeah right," Stan mumbled. He knew how much energy Mabel had, when she was excited about something that would happen, which in this case, was going to watch a boxing match, as Stan had gotten tickets for, for all of them.

A very tired looking Patricia finally ripped the door open. She had bags under her eyes, her hair was messy and she was dressed in a robe. She looked briefly at them and then shouted: "How dare you to come back here?! Don't you ever get near my family again!" She then slammed the door and they heard the door getting locked.

The four people stood, all stunned, looking at the door, which had been slammed in their faces. "Erh… I'm not sure what just happened, dudes," Soos said. "But I don't think that she wants us to be here."

"This doesn't make any sense," Ford mumbled, rethinking the events of last night. There had been no occurrence that should be able to drive Patricia to such a behavior. Wendy knocked the door again, now harder than before. There was no way that she was going to leave, without a very good explanation for this. The door was finally opened again, this time by a very red-eyed Mabel.

"Mabel, what's going on?" Stan asked.

"They found out," she answered. Suddenly they could hear upset voices, which they recognized as Dipper's and Brian's. Behind Mabel, they could see both of them come rushing downstairs. Brian was carrying the journals and the flashlight, which could make stuff grow and shrink. "Dad, stop!" Dipper yelled, grabbing at his fathers arm. "You can't take it!" Brian stopped and looked at his son. "I can, and I will, Dipper. I'm not gonna let my children processed such dangerous things!"

"They are not dangerous!"

"Aren't they?" Brian gave his son a very skeptical look. He then pointed the flashlight towards the wall. "So if I turned this on, nothing is going to happen?"

"No, don't!" Mabel yelled. She ran towards her father, and grabbed the flashlight, trying to pull it out of his hand. The sudden pull, made Brian lose balance. He dropped the journals, trying to regain it, but suddenly a beam fired from the flashlight! It hit a picture of Dipper and Mabel on the wall, making it grow 5 times as big and fall down from the wall.

"Stop!" Dipper yelled. He too grabbed the flashlight, and now all three of them were trying to take it away from each other! Another beam was fired, this time hitting Waddels, who whined loudly and panicking ran towards the door, as he'd grow.

"Waddels!" Mable yelled, letting go of the flashlight.

"You stop right there, pig!" Soos yelled, using his whole body, to stop the oversized pig from running out on the street. Wendy quickly got on the back of him, pressing her feet the right places to make him calm down. Somehow the crystal got turned under the struggle between Dipper and his dad, and the next beam that was fired, hit Patricia, making her shrink to hand sized!

"Patricia!" Brian yelled. He let go of the flashlight, and rushed to his small, screaming wife, who was running back and forth like a buck in a glass. "Dipper what have you done?!" Brian yelled.

"Me!? It was you who…!"

Wendy putted two fingers in her mouth and whistled loud and high-pitched, making everyone look at her. "All right, everybody, calm down! Dipper, use the flashlight, and make everything normal sized again."

Dipper nodded. He then pointed the flashlight, towards the broken picture.

O*o*o*

"I can't believe, that even though you knew how dangerous that town was, you let my kids come there!" Brian said to Stan. All of them were sitting in the living room trying to solve this problem. The twins and their parents were still dressed in their nightclothes.

"He tried to hide it from us," Mabel argued.

"Well apparently he wasn't very good at that!" Brian said. He was holding Mabels scrapbook. "You have fought against a gnome-monster, zombies, a shape-shifter, a woman who seduces men, and then turns into a giant spider and turns the men into mummies for her exhibition!"

"Okay, okay, we get it!" Wendy said, before Brian could mention any more of the dangerous creatures the twins had met. "Yes, Gravity Falls is weird, I know that, man. Heck I grew up in the middle of it, and so did Soos!" The looks Brian and Patricia send her, made her quickly get to the point: "But we managed to deal with it, and so have Dipper and Mabel! I've never seen anyone, but these two handle anything better, than they have handled the weirdness of Gravity Falls!"

Patricia just shook her head. "I always knew something was wrong. I just knew it."

"And how did you know that?" Dipper asked.

"Because you always were so secretive about why you wanted to go there," she answered. "And because you waited a whole year, to tell us, about him!" She pointed at Ford, but kept her eye contact with Dipper. "I guess that the story you told about his disappearance, isn't truth either?"

When the twins had returned after the first summer, they hadn't mentioned a word about that Stans twin brother being back. They had only told them about him, the following year, when the parents had called them on Skype, and Ford had walked in, not knowing what they were doing. Patricia had always felt like there was something fishy about that story they had told: Apparently Stanford had asked Stanly to come take care of the shack, while he traveled the world for more research. While he was gone, the people in the town had kept confusing Stan with him. At last Stan had gotten tired of telling people that he wasn't his brother, and just started to say yes when people asked, if he wasn't that mysteries science guy, who lived in the woods. Stan had then (with permission from his brother of course) started to give people tours in the shack to earn money. But then a night Stan had crashed his car. He had manage to escape the car, before it exploded, and had then fallen unconscious, and when he woke up, he wasn't sure what had happened. He had somehow made it back to Gravity Falls, not knowing that many people thought that he was dead, including his own family. His mother had died from illness when he realized that everybody thought that he was dead, and he had been dead in his father's eyes for years, so Filbrick had never bothered to bring the news further.

"What? Of course it is," Dipper answered. "Really? According to your sister, it is much different!" Brian said, holding out a peace of paper.

Mabel gasped, when she recognized the letter she had written, a few days after that gruncle Ford had come through the portal.

"You kept that?!" Dipper asked his sister.

"Well you said yourself that I couldn't send it," Mabel said trying to defend herself. She had shown it to Dipper when she had written it, and he had explained to her what would happen if she did: their parents would immediately drive to Gravity Falls and drag them home. Mabel had already send plenty of letters to their parents (letters, which Dipper had approved), about that she had meet some gnomes or kissed a mermaid, but since their parents very well knew her wild imagination they had never thought much about it. But if they received a letter talking about portals and anything else that had happened that day, they would realize that it wasn't just fantasy stories.

Dipper had asked Mabel to destroy the letter, but she hadn't wanted to do that. Instead she had decided to fold the letter and hid it under one of the pictures in the scrapbook, to make sure that Dipper wouldn't notice.

The room was filled with very uncomfortable silence, where no one knew what to say. There was nothing that could defend what had happened with the portal. Stan had only wanted save his brother, but he had put the whole universe (including the kids) at risk in the process.

"All right, so now you know the truth," Stan said and stood up. "I know that this seems bad and that I probably should have told you, when you first called me. But I didn't. And you two still have two kids. None of them are dead and none of them got injured over the years. So how about that we start over, huh?"

He held his hand out towards the parents, but Brian slapped it away. "Are you crazy? No! We're not just going to `start over´ like we are pretending that you haven't been putting our children in danger, the past five years!"

"And it won't happen again!" Patricia said.

"W..what do you mean?" Mabel asked.

"I mean, that your brother is going to West Coast Tech…"

"Wait a second!" Dipper interrupted his mother. "I haven't decided that yet!"

"But we have!" Patricia said.

"You can't do that!"

"Yes we can! You aren't 18 yet, which means that we still have custody of the two of you!"

"But…"

"No buts! You are going to contact the school today and tell them that you have accepted the scholarship, and that is final!" Brian said.

Dipper bowed his head. He knew that there was no way he could convince his parents otherwise.

"And you, young lady," Patricia said, to Mabel. "You are going to find work here in the town, until you have been accepted to a college next year."

"Now you stop right there!" Stan said. "Listen, I understand that you want the best for your kids and that you are only trying to protect them, but I'm not gonna stand here and watch you drag them apart! Trust me: it's gonna give nothing, but trouble!"

Patricia looked Stan in the eyes. "Don't you dare come here and tell me what is best for my children! Now get out of my home all of you! And don't you dare to contact us ever again!"

"Hey you can't forbid us to stay in contact!" Wendy said.

"Yes we can! Now get out and take these with you!" Brian said and threw gifts in the arms of Ford.

"You don't have the right to…!" Ford began.

"Get out before we call the police!" Patricia screamed.

"No please!" Mabel begged. "Please! Don't leave!"

Her father grabbed her, when she tried to run to her friends and gruncles.

"There has got to be a better way we can solve this," Dipper said.

"I'm afraid there isn't Dipper," Ford said. He took a step towards his nephew.

"No!" Patricia yelled. Ford barely managed to dodge the vase she threw after him. Everybody, except Brian, looked at her with shocked eyes. No one said anything, when Stan, Ford, Wendy and Soos left the house. It was only after they had heard the car drive away Brian let go of Mabel.

She immediately turned to her parents, with tears running down her cheeks. "You didn't even let us say goodbye!" she yelled. She then ran up stairs and slammed the door.

Dipper just gave his parents a very hurt and disappointed look, before he walked up stairs, to try to console his twin sister.


	4. Chapter 4

Dipper was sitting in his very small apartment. Mabel and their parents had just left, to get back to California, after helping him unpack. He had hugged both his parents, but truth to be told, it had only been half-hearted. He still hadn't forgiven his parents for the way they had treated, Stan, Ford, Wendy and Soos. He was especially mad, at his mother for throwing a vase at Ford.

Mabel had been crying, when he hugged her goodbye. He had promised her, that they would video-chat every day, and that he would come home every time he could. They had only let go of each other, when their parents had said that they had to leave now.

And now Dipper was alone. No parents, no gruncles, no friends, no Waddles and no Mabel. They had never been apart for more than a week before, where their mother had taken Mabel to a spa or where he'd had been out in the woods, with Great Uncle Ford, doing research on a subject, that turned out to bigger than they had expected. Now it would be months before they would see each other, besides on a computer screen.

Dipper got up from the kitchen chair and walked three steps to the bed. He reached under it, and found the plastic-bag, he had hidden there, so his parents wouldn't notice it. He sat up on the bed, and pulled the three journals, he had gotten from Ford, up.

His parents had no idea that his still had the gifts, or that Mabel had hers. Shortly after, their friends had left, he had gotten a text from Wendy, telling them to look under their porch, when their parents were asleep. It turned out that she had hidden their gifts there, before she had left.

Wendy's text had been the last the twins had heard from their friends or gruncles and they hadn't dared to take contact to them, themselves, fearing what would happen if their parents found out. Dipper knew that his parents had received plenty of phone calls from Gravity Falls (he could tell by the way his parents would hang up very quickly after the phone had rang).

Dipper looked at the books, and wondered if he should have given one of them to Mabel, so she could have at least some memories from Gravity Falls. Their parents had burned her scrapbook, which had made both twins freak out. Mostly from anger, but also because it somehow made them think about Bill Cipher, who had burned the original journals. They both knew that he was defeated, but they (especially Dipper) would still, from time to time, have nightmares about him and that he would hurt the people they loved.

He also found the old letter, Wendy had given him, after their first summer in Gravity Falls, and smiled. Somehow the piece of paper with everyone's signature, written on it, could always make his mood better.

The following day, Dipper started his studies. He was excited but also a bit nervous. He was going to learn a lot of new things and meet some many new people!

Unfortunately things didn't go as well as he hoped: In the beginning he would take notes to all the subjects, but soon realized that he already knew most of the things the professor would say, and when the day was over he still hadn't managed to make any friends.

o*o*o*

 _"Hey, Bro-bro!"_  Mabel said loudly.

"Hey there!" Dipper answered. It had only been a few days but he couldn't remember the last time he had been this happy to see his sister, even though it was only through the computer.

" _So? How is West Cost Tech?"_  Mabel asked, sounding very interested.

"Honestly," Dipper said. "It is terrible!"

" _What do you mean?!"_  Mabel asked.

"The classes are boring! Ford taught me most of the stuff, a long time ago!"

_"Well doesn't it give you an advantage in class, if already know the stuff?"_

"Yes. But it also makes it very boring," Dipper said again. "And besides: the point of being here is to learn new things, but since I already know the stuff they teaches in class, I have to use all my free time, to study by myself to learn something!" And that was also pretty boring. Thanks to Great Uncle Ford, Dipper had gotten used to work in the field, but they never did that here.

" _Well, how about that you try focusing a little less on learning more nerd stuff, and spend some more time with your new nerdy friends?"_  Mabel suggested.

Dipper just looked down at the keyboard, instead of his sister.

Mabel gasped loudly and said:  _"You haven't got any new friends?!"_

"No," Dipper mumbled. "Everyone are so different here! I'm used to be around people who knows about weirdness or likes mysteries. These people are way too normal!"

 _"Oh come on, Dip-dop, you can't give up this easy!"_  Mabel said. It had been the same when they had started high school. But then Mabel had been there to guide her brother to get some new friends and try to be social. She couldn't do that now. He had to get some friends on his own. But she could still give him some advice and pep-talk!  _"Tomorrow you are gonna go to school and you are gonna be all yourself and then you are gonna talk to people and show them what a fantastic friend my twin brother can be!"_

Dipper smiled. He had always admired how his sister was able to cheer him up. She had always seen things from the brighter side and he sometimes wished had he was able to do the same.

"So how about you?" Dipper asked. "How are you doing at work?" Their parents had helped Mabel get a job in a pet store, a couple of weeks ago.

 _"It's okay,"_  Mabel said.  _"But there are so many cute pets and I wish that I could take home all of them!"_

"I bet, you do," Dipper chuckled. "But at least you can be around them every day and pet them..."

 _"No! I'm not aloud to pet them, Dipper!"_  Mabel yelled.  _"I wanna pet them, so bad and the urge is killing me!"_

"Okay... Well you have to feed them, right?"

_"Yeah?"_

"How about that when you do that, you give them a quick petting, just for a couple of seconds?"

 _"Dipper! You're a genius!"_  Mabel cheered.

o*o*o*

The following day, Dipper decided to do as Mabel had suggested. He sat down besides a group of people hoping to get to talk to them before class started. But they were busy talking about some sport that he hadn't been watching. The professor came in and started to talk about another subject, that Dipper already knew.

He started to look around, to see if there were any one else he could try to talk to in the break. His eyes then caught on a young man sitting in the back. The man wore small glasses on a long nose, he had light brown hair and small ears... Dipper had a very strange feeling, that he had seen the guy before. But where? He thought back, and when he realized where he had seen him, his eyes widened in shock. No! It couldn't be!

The guy raised his hand to a question, Dipper hadn't heard, but he sure heard when the professor said now: "Yes, Mr. McGucket."

As soon as the class was over, Dipper rushed out of the classroom, finding his phone. "Come one, Mabel, pick up!" he mumbled.

 _"Hey, Bro-bro, can you please call me back later? I'm not aloud to be on the phone when I'm working,"_  Mabel said.

"No! Mabel, it can't wait!" Dipper said a little too loud. He quickly lowered his voice: "I think McGucket is messing with time!"

_"What?! How?!"_

"I just had physics with him! Or well, it wasn't him, but some a younger version of him!"

 _"What do we do?"_  Mabel asked.

_"I don't know, but..."_

_"Excuse me, but what do you think you're doing?"_  Dipper heard a woman say on the phone.

 _"Well I'm..."_  Mabel began.

_"Get back to work!"_

The phone was hung up and Dipper soon realized, that he would have to deal with this alone. But how? He had never prepared himself for this, even though he probably should have known that this could have happened. Blendin Blandin had lost his time travel device to two twelve year olds. He could easily have lost it to a young McGucket too. Or maybe he had just dropped it? No matter what had happened, Dipper knew that he had to do something. He knew from bad experience how bad it could end up, when you mess with time. They could risk that McGucket would do something that could change the past and make the time police catch him and punish him. Maybe they would even make sure that McGucket never was born? That would change the entire future, as he knew it!

When the day was over he had decided that the only thing he could do, was talk to the young McGucket as soon as possible and followed him, to the library. Dipper took a deep breath, before he sat down at the table, where McGucket was reading. He looked up from his and said: "Hello there, fella."

"Hey, erm..." Dipper wasn't quite sure how to do this. "Listen, man, I know who you are."

"I also know who you are. We are in the same class."

"No, that's not what I mean," Dipper said. "I know who you are, and where you are coming from. You can't stay here, McGucket. It's too dangerous for you and everybody else in this time."

McGucket raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure that I understand... listen; I've got a lot of reading to do, so if you could..."

"No, I can't let you learn anymore beyond you oven time. You can end up endangering the whole future. And if you do that, you might end up fighting in a globular!"

McGucket looked at him with very shocked eyes. He then putted the book down and said: "Listen, fella. My grandfather has told me a lot of crazy stories, just like yours, and he is man who today earns million on his inventions, but he was also know as a crazy hillbilly for thirty years of he life. I'm only telling you this, because you seem like a good guy and..."

"Wait what did you just say?" Dipper cut him of.

"I said that my grandfather..."

"Your grandfather. Is he Fiddleford Hadron McGucket? Who lives in Gravity Falls?"

"Yes? You have heard of him?"

"Dude, I haven't just heard of him, I know him!" Dipper was almost getting excited, when he realized his mistake: This young man wasn't a younger version of McGucket, he was his grandson. Who look very much like him. "Listen, man, I am so sorry. I've seen some pretty weird stuff, and I just thought that you were... somebody else."

Dipper was about to leave, when the young McGucket said: "Wait. I guess we all make mistakes now and then. Some a little more weird than others, but how about that we start over?" He reached his hand towards Dipper. "Hello, my name is Fiddleford McGucket."

Dipper took the hand. "Hey. My name is Dipper Pines."

"Pines you say? My grandfather told me about a pair of twins who lives in Gravity Falls, with that name. He used to work with one of them."

"Yeah. They are my great uncles," Dipper said. They sat down again, this time with out the weird tension.

"So you have actually been in Gravity Falls?"

"Yeah! My sister and I have visited our great uncles every summer, since we were twelve years old."

"Lucky you. I have never been there."

"Really? Why not?"

"Well my parents got a divorce shortly after I was born and my mother and I moved away from Gravity Falls. My mother didn't want me to go to go back there, because she didn't want me around my grandfather," Fiddleford explained. "Even though my father avoided my grandfather, he didn't want me there either, claiming that the town was to dangerous, which I never really understood."

"But, you do speak to your grandfather now, don't you?" Dipper asked. He knew that McGucket would go very far, just to talk to his family.

"Oh yes, I sure do. After he got his sanity back, he and my father rebuild their relationship. Now I talk to him a couple of times in the week over Skype or the phone."

Suddenly Dipper felt his own phone vibrate in his pocket. It was Mabel. Despite that he was in the library, he decided to answer it anyway.

 _"Dipper, have you found out, what to do about McGucket?"_  she asked.

"Yep. We don't have anything to worry about," Dipper answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would be really happy, if you would leave a comment with your thoughts ;)


	5. Chapter 5

Mabel could barely believe her own ears, when her brother told her the real story behind the young McGucket. Not only was he named after his grandfather, he was also a splitting image of him. She had no problem understanding Dippers theory, when Dipper called her over Skype, so she could meet him (or do the closest thing they could come to a meeting).

But she did, on the other hand, have a problem calling him Fiddleford. It made her think of the old man who lived in Gravity Falls, and she missed that little town way to much to be reminded of someone who lived in it, every time she talked to her brothers new friend. But luckily she had the perfect solution: she would just call him junior instead since he seemed like the younger version of McGucket! No even better: FJ!

Dipper had immediately tried to talk her out of it, when she suggested it to them, but Fiddleford actually seemed to like it.

Mabel was glad, that her brother finally had found a good and very sweet friend! Everything seemed to go much better now, for both of them: Dipper had a friend, her boss had gotten much nicer, after Mabel helped her get a boyfriend and best of all: they had renewed the contact with their friends in Gravity Falls! It was Soos who had taken the initiative, when his son had been born.

Little Lee was the most adorable baby boy Mabel ever had seen and he looked almost exactly like Soos, except that he had gotten Melody's eyes and nose. Since that day, the twins, had Skyped with their friends at least every second weekend, the last five months.

And this weekend gruncle Stan and gruncle Ford would be joining them! The older pair of twins had decided to go on another trip on the Stan o war II and had been gone for months, visiting an island, where Ford had discovered a bird species that seemed very similar to one, that lived in Gravity Falls. But tonight they would finally be back at the Shack and be able to video-chat! Mabel hadn't felt this excited since their graduation. Not even when they had held their birthday in Californian. They had tried to be happy and have a good time with their family from their mothers side, but it hadn't been the same as the last years, where they had celebrated their birthdays in Gravity Falls.

Mabel sat down with her laptop. She had barely been online a minute, before Wendy called her.

"Hey, Wendy!"

"What up, dude!"

A few seconds later Dipper joined them, followed by Soos. The four of them quickly caught up on a conversation, like the used to do, before the twins finished high school. They were all laughing their heads of, after Wendy told them about something Thompson had done, when their gruncels joined them.

"Kids!" Stan greeted them when his face showed up on the screen.

"Gruncle Stan!" the twins said in unison.

"Ford, come on!" Stan yelled, looking away from the screen.

"I will be there in a moment, Stanley!" they head Ford answer. Soon after Ford joined Stan on the screen, with a cop of coffee. "Greetings!"

"Hey Great Uncle Ford!"

"Hey gruncle Ford!"

"How are you two doing?"

"Pretty good," Mabel said. "Everything is better at work, now that my boss met Alex. She now lets me pet all the pets in the store, as much as I want to!"

"Sounds awesome," Wendy said.

"Yeah!... I'm actually gonna miss it after the summer."

"Why can't you work there after the summer?" Stan asked.

"Mom and dad made my apply to every college in the country. There is no way I'm not gonna get in somewhere." The big smile from before had faded into a very depressed look.

"Man, I'm sorry to hear that, dude," Soos said.

"No, no, no don't be!" Mabel said quickly shaking her hands in front of her screen. The last thing she wanted, was this conversation to be sad. "L-lets change the subject!"

Everyone agreed, but suddenly none of them knew what to talk about. Ford was the first to come up with a new subject: "So Dipper, how are you doing?"

Stan putted a hand over his eyes: "Arh, five minutes, poindexter! You couldn't even keep your promise for five minutes!"

"What are you talking about, Stanley?" Ford asked. "I only asked him, how he is doing, I didn't say a single word about West Coast Tech."

"Come on! Everyone know that it was implied!"

"Guys, please! Don't fight!" Mabel begged.

"We are not fighting. I'm just stating the fact, that I didn't break any promises," Ford said.

"Yeah right, everyone in this conversation, know exactly what you were going at..."

Dipper was trying to figure out what to say to change the subject, before the conversation turned into a fight, when someone knocked on his front door. "Oh, I'll be right back guys," he said and bended the computer screen half way down.

"I'll bet that's FJ," Mabel said.

"Who is FJ?" Ford asked.

"Dippers new bff and study-body!" Mabel answered. "

So he found another nerd to hang with," Stan said.

"Stanley, just because some one likes to expand their knowledge, it doesn't mean that they are `nerds´," Ford growled.

"Yeah, gruncle Ford is right," Mabel said. Everybody looked at her. It was very rare that Mabel would side with Ford instead of Stan.

Meanwhile, Dipper had opened the door. As Mabel had predicted, it was FJ, with a very excited look on his face. Dipper recognized the look from when they had gotten a good grade on a project, or when a hot girl had talked to him. "Dipper, I've got amazing news..." he began, when Mabel yelled: "Hey, FJ!"

"Oh, it's videochat-night? You know what, I'll just come back later..." He knew how much it meant to Dipper to be able to talk to his family and friends.

"No, no, no!" Dipper said. "I actually think that it is time, that you meet some of the people from Gravity Falls!"

"Well, that sure couldn't hurt," FJ said. He took a chair and sat down besides Dipper.

"Everyone, there is somebody I would like you to meet!" Dipper said. He bended the screen up, so the others were abel to see them.

"Hello, fellas. I'm Fiddleford McGucket." Luckily FJ had been prepared for the very surprised looks he received. Wendy and Soos immediately thought of the young man who they had seen in McGucket's memories.

Ford started coughing from choking on the sip of coffee and Stan had to slap him on the back. "Come on, Sixer, breath!" Ford managed to recover his breath, and realized that everybody was looking very concerned at him. "My apologies. But you, young man, look exactly like..."

"His grandfather!" Mabel said. Ford looked from her to the young man.

"You are Fiddleford McGuckets grandson?!" Fiddleford had told him, that he had a grandchild, who lived in Illinois with the mother after she divorced Tate. He had seen pictures of the boy, when he was younger, and knew that he looked a lot like his grandfather, but he had never imagened that they practically would be identical!

"In the flesh," FJ answered proudly.

"Wow, dude! You look just like him!" Soos said.

"Jep," Mabel said. "Dipper actually thought that he was a young McGucket, who was messing with time."

"Heh, paranoid as always," Stan laughed, making the rest of them giggle, except Dipper. He knew very well that he could be a bit paranoid at times, but didn't see, what was wrong with his theory. He would bet that the others would have gotten the same idea, if it had been them, who had seen him at first.

"So, FJ," Dipper said. "You were talking about some good news?"

"You are darn right I do!" FJ answered. He had only planned on telling Dipper, at first, but he knew that all of them would like to hear it. "I just talked to my grandfather, and I told him about... your situation."

Dipper and Mabel had told him about what had happened, a while ago. Mabel had gotten pretty emotional, when they had been telling him about some of their adventures in Gravity falls, and they had ended up telling him why they hadn't been abel to move to Gravity Falls as they had planned. "And he came up with a suggestion. You never told your parents, who my grandfather is, right?"

"Nope," Dipper answered while Mabel shook her head.

"Good. Then how about, that you fellas ask your parents, if you can go visit my grandfather with me, during the summer holidays?" he said. His mother had finally agreed to let him go up there. Or well, agree on, probably wasn't the right words, but his was old enough to make his own decisions, which meant that she couldn't stop him, if he wanted to go. "We could just tell them that he lives in another state than Oregon!"

"Dude are you serious?" Dipper asked.

"You mean that we could actually go to Gravity Fall?" Mabel asked. She knew that it meant lying to her parents, but something told her, that she would be able to live with that.

"Yes!"

"Wow... this is just like a dream, except that it is real! Hight five, dudes!" Soos said holding a hand up towards his web came. The others did the same, all smiling from happiness.

"Hey, where is gruncle Stan?" Mabel asked, when they had taken their hands down and the chair beside gruncle Ford was empty.

"He went upstairs, to prepare your room," Ford answered.

"He, erm, does know that we won't have vacation before June, right?" FJ asked.

Before anyone could answer, it knocked on Mabels door. Mabel quickly minimized the page, not noticing that Wendy, Soos and Ford immediately hung up, before she let her mother come in. "Who are you talking to, honey?" she asked.

"Erm..." Mabel began.

"Hey, mom!" Dipper said and waved, quickly.

Patricia walked over and looked at the little square in the corner of Mabels computer. "Hey, sweetie!" she answered.

"Mabel, why didn't you tell me that your brother called?"

"We called her, about fifteen minutes ago, and then we just got to talk," Dipper answered. "Oh, and this is FJ. We study together!"

"Hello there, mrs. Pines," FJ said. Dipper prayed silent, that she wouldn't be able to see the similarities between FJ and the pictures she had seen of Old Man McGucket in Mabels scrapbook.

"Oh hello," Patricia smiled.

"FJ was just telling us that his grandfather has invited us to visit him for the summer break," Mabel said.

"Really?" Patricia asked.

"Yeah! As a reward for our grades," Dipper said.

"Can we go, mom?" Mabel asked.

"Oh erm... I don't know... Where does he live?"

"He lives in Ohio," FJ answered. "And you are sure, that he wouldn't mind? I mean, he has never met Dipper and Mabel before."

"It was his idea," FJ said. "He thought that it would give us an advantage in class next semester, if we can study the nature and culture in another state." He wasn't sure how different the culture or nature was from Californias, but it was the first that came to his mind.

"Yeah. It would also be a good opportunity for Mabel, when she gets accepted on an university," Dipper said. "We are allowed stay as long as we want to. He lives alone and loves company."

"Can we please go, mom?" Mabel asked.

"Well, I can't see why not. But you'll have to ask your father tomorrow."

Dipper and FJ gave each other a high five, while Mabel hugged mother. "Thank you!"

"You welcome, honey, but remember to ask your father tomorrow."

O*o*o*

The next day Mabel got up 6.00 A.M, despite that it was Sunday. She texted Dipper, that she was about to begin operation `Make dad say yes´!

Dipper texted her back to make sure that he was in a very good mood when she asked him. But also to make sure to put it as a good opportunity, for their studies, and that it was a very safe place to go. And make sure not mention that the grandfathers name, was McGucket! They couldn't give him any reason to believe that they were going to Gravity Falls!

 _"Leave that to Mabel :P"_  she texted back, before she went down to the kitchen. She was going to give her dad the best breakfast ever! And after that, they would spend the day together! They were going to watch a horse race, and go to the zoo, just like they used to, when she was a kid (except that Dipper wasn't there. And that it wouldn't be the same zoo as they used to, when they were kids, since she had gotten banned, after trying to make a unicorn). Then in the evening, she would ask him.

Brian was very surprised when he woke up to breakfast in bed. Mabels cooking had become better over the years as she had started to actually follow the recipes instead of adding glitter or the double amount of sugar, but she still wasn't a very good cook. But Brian knew that Mabel had worked hard on it and ate all of it. He even drank the big glass of Mabel-juice.

They then went to the horse race to see the horse they had betted on win! They then spend the rest of the day in the in the zoo and Mabel really enjoyed the day. It was nice spending time with her dad and she almost felt like she was a kid again, as she pointed at the animals, and the laughed together.

They sat down at a bench and had an ice-cream each.

"Listen, Mabel, I actually wanted to talk to you," Brian said.

Mabel swallowed the ice she had had in her mouth. She knew that tone way to well: It was the tone her father used, when they were about to have a very serious conversation. This was suppose to be a fun day!

"I know that both your brother and you have been very angry with your mother and I, because we forbad you to go to Gravity Falls, and I understand that. But all this time, we thought that you were just having fun in that little town, with your uncles and some other kids. We never imagined that you daily would face such dangerous things. We are lucky that we haven't lost you yet. But we can't keep counting on that luck." Brian sighted. "I guess that what I'm trying to say is, that your mother and I only forbad you to go, because we love you, and don't want to lose you. You understand that, right?"

Mabel looked at the ground. "I know," she sighted. All of the sudden she felt very bad, for lying to her parents all these years. And she felt bad, that she was going to lie to her dad later today... She looked up and hugged him. "I love you too, daddy!"

O*o*o*

Dipper and FJ were sitting in Dippers apartment, preparing for the lecture tomorrow, when Mabel called.  _"Pack your suitcases, guys! We are going to Gravity Falls!"_  they were able to hear her yell, despite the wind in the background.

"Yes!" Dipper cheered.

"You do know, that we won't have vacation before June, right?" FJ asked. Dipper laughed. June couldn't come soon enough!


	6. Chapter 6

"Dipper!" Mabel yelled, when she saw him get of the train. She jumped up and down waving her arms over her head, to make sure that he would see her.

"Mabel!" Dipper yelled back and waved when he spotted his twin-sister standing on the other side of the train-station. He elbowed his way through the many people until he was close enough to lift her up in a hug, where her feet didn't touch the ground.

Normally she hated when he did that, because he would always do it to tease her and remind her that he was taller than her, but right now, he couldn't do anything that could make her any happier, and she hugged him as thigh as she possibly could! Mabel got to look over Dippers shoulder and saw FJ standing behind him and smiled at her.

As soon as Dipper put her down, she ran over and hugged FJ almost as tightly as she had hugged her twin brother. FJ was a bit surprised by her action. Dipper had told him that Mabel often would act out her emotions, but he hadn't imagined that she would hug him, like they had know each other for years. But it didn't prevent him from hugging her back!

"I'm so glad to finally meet you for real!" Mabel let go and looked up in his dark eyes. She was so happy that she finally got to meet him in person, that she didn't know where to begin! It was so much better than talking to him on the computer, even though he looked pretty much the same. Except that his hair seemed a lot thicker in real life, and that he was even taller than she had thought.

"The same to you," FJ smiled. He heard something grunt behind her, and his eyes caught on the pig in the pet carrier. "And this must be Waddles." He had seen the pig plenty of times when they had been talking on Skype.

"Yeah. It's not fair, that he has to be locked in, in that small box for the whole trip," Mabel sulked. She had had a very long argument with both her parents and the checker in the train about letting Waddels out but none of them had let her do it. "He is a good pig, he shouldn't have to be locked in. Maybe we are the ones that should be locked in small cases, has anyone ever thought about that, huh?"

"Hmm... I think I've got a solution for that," Dipper smiled. "So, FJ, would you like to get a foretaste of what you are gonna see, in Gravity Falls?"

"Sure!"

"Then follow me, both of you."

"Would you like me, to carry some of that for you?" FJ asked Mabel and looked at her suitcases.

"Uuh a real gentleman," Mabel said. FJ took her backpack and one of her suitcases and then followed Dipper, away from the train station. They found a little alley, where no one else was able to see them.

FJ watched as Mabel let Waddels out of the pet carrier, and Dipper found a very strange looking, red flashlight. He then pointed it at Waddels and turned it on. FJ's gawked in disbelief, when the beam of light hit the pig, which immediately started shrinking. Dipper stopped when the pig wad small enough for Mabel to pick up in her hands and put it in the pocked of her cardigan.

"Tadaa!" Mabel said.

"H-How?" It was the only thing FJ could say. "The crystal I tied to the flashlight, makes things shrink or grow, when light shines through it," Dipper explained, while he also made the pet carrier shrink. He handed the flashlight to FJ, who started to examine in with the eyes. "This is... amazing!" FJ said.

"If you think that is amazing, you are gonna love, Gravity Falls. You are gonna see things like this, and much bigger, every day!" Mabel said.

"Really?!"

"It's a promise!" Dipper looked at his watch. There was still an hour of waiting for the train to Oregon, and they decided to go grab something to eat in the mean time.

It would have been much easier for Mabel, if she could just have taken the bus to Gravity Falls, but since her parents believed that she was going to Ohio, she had had to take the train, in that direction. What her parents didn't know, was that she had gotten of in Kansas, where she was suppose to meet Dipper and FJ. They would afterwards take the train to Oregon together. Mabel still had trouble believing that it could be true: they got to spend one more summer in Gravity Falls! She didn't want to think about what would happen after the summer ended. All she wanted, was to have a good time the next three months! She was convinced, that nothing at all could ruin this summer. She had no idea how wrong she was.

O*o*o*

"Here we are, people! Gravity Falls! A small town with big adventures!" Mabel cheered when the finally got of the train, the same evening. FJ looked around. Just like he had imagined it looked like a sweet and peaceful, little town, but he knew that it contained much more that that, and he couldn't wait to see it.

"Hey look, that must be our ride!" Mabel said.

A white car came driving and honked the horn. It stopped a few meters away from them and Gideon Gleeful stepped out. "Hello, fellas, welcome back!" he said. Three years ago Gideon had decided to join the family company, to his fathers pleasure, and was now the proud part owner of " The li'l old car shop" (he had convinced his father to rename it a couple of months after they started working together, and he had given some of his old cellmates a job, so they would be able to start over). Since then, Gideon had started to look like his father more and more, for every day. (Mostly because he gained weigh).

"Hey, Gideon," Dipper said, giving him a friendly hug. To FJ's surprise, Mabel didn't immediately run up and hug him too. Instead she just watched as her brother took care of the reunion.

"Oh... hello, Mabel," Gideon said. His cheeks turned a bit red. "It's good to see you again."

"Thanks... you too!" Mabel said, not really knowing what to say. Gideon had never really stop trying to win her heart, which made everything pretty awkward, now that he was a good guy and she didn't want to hurt him. "Erm... This is FJ!"

"Well, hello there, so you are Mr. McGucket's grandson. Welcome to the town!" Gideon said. He grabbed FJ's hand and shook it. When he was younger he had never showed the old hillbilly any respect, but now that he was older (and McGucket had invested in the car shop) he had realized that McGucket actually was a very decent man. "Boy he is gonna be happy to see you, fella! Come on, jump in. Everybody is waiting for y'all!"

"Wow, this is a nice car," Dipper said, when he got in.

"Only the finest in Gravity Falls, my boy!" Gideon said. It didn't take long before the arrived at the Mystery Shack. It looked pretty dark and all the curtains were pulled. Dipper and Mabel exchanged looks. They both knew that there was no way, that their gruncles would forget the date, they would arrive. Mabel ran up to the front door and knocked, but no one answered it. In fact everything seemed way to quiet...

"That's odd..." Gideon said. "They told me to take y'all here."

Dipper got up besides his sister. He hesitated, before he grabbed door handle. It wasn't locked. Something was differently wrong here! The twins exchanged looks and nodded. They then looked back at Gideon and FJ. Both of them nodded too, even though FJ, really didn't seem comfortable with situation. The twins turned towards the door again. Dipper was about to push the door open, but suddenly the door was ripped open and something big and dark, grabbed the twins!

Both of them, and FJ screamed, as the big creature roared: "Welcome back!"

Dipper and Mabel stopped screaming and looked up. "Multi-bear!" Mabel said. All her fear turned into a big smile.

The big creature putted them down. "Hey, it's great to see you, man!" Dipper said.

FJ just starred at them. This was crazy! The twins were hugging a bear with... ten heads! He could feel his heart trying to beat it's way out of his chest. For a moment he thought that they were all goners...

"Hey, are you alright there, fella?" Gideon asked. He lightly patted FJ's shoulder. "Don't worry you'll get used to these things in a couple of weeks!"

"FJ, come on!" Mabel called. She ran down and grabbed his hand and dragged him up inside. The light had been turned on and when they came inside the living room, almost the whole town seemed to be gathered. Dipper and Mabel immediately started to hug and say hello to everybody.

FJ looked around, not quit sure, where to go. There were so many people here, but then his eyes caught on an elderly man.

Old Man McGucket had change a lot over the years, since he had gotten his sanity back. His beard was now short and well-groomed, he had cut the plaster of his arm and most of the time he was walking straight, but he would still wear the green, round glasses, and some times even his old hat and overalls, because it made him feel comfortable. He looked at FJ and smiled, before he walked towards him.

"Grandpa?" FJ asked.

"Who else would I be?" McGucket asked, before he pulled the young man into a welcoming hug. This was the first time ever they met face to face. "Well, it seems like you really have turned into a handsome young man, huh?" McGucket said, sounding very proud. "Hey everybody! Come say hello to my grandson!"

The whole crowed turned their attention towards the two McGuckets. McGucket gave FJ a light push towards them and soon he was walking around giving hand to most of the town: Lazy Susan (who couldn't help passing a comment on how cute he looked), Robby, Candy, Grenda, Bud Gleeful, Manly Dan, and his three sons, Mayer Tyler Cutebiker, Sheriff Blubs, Deputy Durland, Toby Determined (who tried to interview him with a carrot), Thompson, Tats, Melody, baby Lee... a big bunch of gnomes, miniatures, no manotaurs... He received strong handshakes from both Stanley and Stanford, and a pat on the shoulder, and big hugs, like the had known each other forever, from both Wendy and Soos.

After the introduction, every thing seemed to become much less awkward, and FJ found it very easy to talk to everyone. He even got into a very nice conversation with the multi-bear, who apologized for scaring him earlier. He also caught up with is grandfather, who was "Happy as a dancing donkey" that his grandson actually was here. He had felt a bit lonely, since his son moved, on and half a year ago, but he never told anyone.

FJ's eyes caught on Dipper and Mabel. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Dipper this happy, or Mabel for that matter, but he understood why: they belonged here in this town, where they fitted right in, just like their gruncles. This was going to be the most exciting summer he ever had had.


	7. Chapter 7

When Mabel awoke the next day, she didn't dare to open her eyes. What if it had all just been a dream? What if they hadn't gone to Gravity Falls, and she would wake up in her own room? She pulled the cover all over her head. She didn't want to get up to the big disappointment.

Dipper was very surprised, when he woke up, without Mabel having something to do with it. For as long as he could remember, she would always wake up before him and find some kind of `fun´ way to wake him up. But now that she hadn't, he started to get worried. `No,´ he told himself. `She is probably just planning on some kind of joke, where the bed is empty when I go check on her.´ He got up and got dressed, but after getting back from the bathroom, he decided to check on her anyway, mentally preparing himself for what possibly could happen.

"Hey, Mabel, can I come in?" he asked, slapping on the curtain, which Stan had made Soos put up, a couple of years ago, to split the room. "I didn't hear a no, so I'm coming in." Dipper pulled the curtain aside, only to find his sister still lying in her bed. "Alright, what kind of prank are you planning on today?" Dipper asked, not getting any closer.

"Nothing," Mabel answered from under the duvet.

"Are you okay?" Dipper started to get concerned. Either Mabel had become a very good actor, since last he saw her, or else there was something really wrong.

"Mmhhhmm."

"You're not okay," Dipper said. He got closer and sat down on the bed. "If you were okay, you wouldn't be spending your first morning in Gravity Falls, in bed."

Mabel sat up and grabbed his head between her hands, in one move. "What did you say?!"

"I said that you're not okay, cause if you were..."

"We are in Gravity Falls?!" she cut him of, looking around.

"Yeah. Where else would we be?" Mabel let go of his face and jumped of the bed, looking out of the window.

"You thought it was to good to be true, didn't you?" Dipper asked. He didn't want to admit that he had been thinking the same, when he woke up, because he knew that he wouldn't be able to remember so many details, of what had happened yesterday, if it had all just been a dream. He walked back to his own side of the room and pulled the curtain, so Mabel could get dressed.

It suddenly knocked on the door. "Hey guys, rise and shine!" Wendy's voice sounded through the door.

"We are up!" Dipper called back.

"Come on, dude, are you telling me that I carried this bucked of ice cold water all the way up the stairs for nothing?"

"Just pure it all over Dipper, he looks very tired!" Mabel called.

"Good!" Wendy laughed.

Suddenly something was wrapped around Dippers body. "Hey...!"

"Wendy, quick! I've got him!" Mabel yelled.

Dipper barely managed to realize, that Mabel had used her garbling-hook to tie him, before Wendy rushed in, and purred the whole bucket of ice-cold water over him! "Welcome back, dude!" Wendy said and gave Mabel a high-five. "By the way, Stan asked me to tell you that breakfast is ready."

"Great!" Mabel said and pulled the hook back, which caused Dipper to spin around. "Come on, Dipper!"

"I have to change my clothes..."

"No time for that! We promised to show FJ the town today, remember?" She grabbed his wrist and dragged him downstairs. At least his sister was herself again...

o*o*o*

The twins rang the bell to the enormous manor, but no one opened. "We were suppose to meet him here at 10 o'clock, right?" Mabel asked and looked at her watch, which showed 10.25.

"Yeah. Hang on, I'll call him," Dipper said. He pulled out his cell and called his Study-body.

"Hey, Dipper," FJ said. For some reason he sounded pretty breathless. "I haven't forgotten our plans, I'm just... running a little late."

"Where are you? We are at the manor, but we can go to meet you."

"I'm inside the manor... But I'm sort of lost..." Both Dipper and Mabel had to suppress their giggles.

"Hey look, there's an open window!" Mabel said and pointed to her right. "Don't worry, FJ, we are coming in to find you!"

The twins had visited McGucket plenty of times over the years and knew their way around the house pretty well, even though it had changed a lot, since the Northwests left town, and managed to find their friend in less than five minutes.

"Down worry, man, you will know the ins and outs of this place, within a week," Dipper promised.

"I hope so. It took me twenty minutes just to find the bathroom this morning. This place is a complete maze!" FJ answered, making both Mabel and Dipper laugh.

"So what do you want to see first?" Mabel asked. "We could visit the Manotaur's man cave, go to the gnomes hole... the opportunities are never-ending!"

"Well, I'll let you choose then."

"Then let's start right here," Dipper said.

"Here?"

"Yeah. You see, I don't know if your grandfather have told you or not, but the family who owned the place were the worst! More than 150 years ago, they made lumber-folks built the manor, promising that they would let them in at the grand opening party! But when the work was done, the Northwest's just laugh and closed the gate. One of the lumbers swore, right before his dead, that until the gate was opened he would seek his revenge every 50th years!"

"What? You mean the house is haunted?!"

"No, don't worry. He got what he wanted a couple of years ago when Pacifica Northwest opened the gate."

It was really a shame that Pacifica had moved after her parents lost all their money. She now lived in Minnesota, where she worked with horses (the twins had been very surprised, when she told them that she had gotten an actually job that would make her sweat, but she seemed to like it).

The three of them took the new golf card, to make sure that they would get around to see as much as possible, but there was no way they could get around to see everything in just one day. They still had fun though and Mabel got a lot of pictures for her new scrapbook. Instead of being sad about losing the old one, she had decided to make a new one, with precious memories and she wasn't the only one: Dipper and great uncle Ford had started on their research to find out why Gravity Falls contained all this weirdness, and Dipper wrote down every single step they came closer to an answer. They had been looking for answers for years, but they were too stubborn to give up!

Boy Dipper had missed to work in the field. This was the best way for him to learn and he knew that he would learn more this summer, with Great Uncle Ford, than he had the whole school year.

O*o*o*

"Hey, dudes I totally forgot to show you!" Soos suddenly said while they all were eating dinner in the Shack. They had been in Gravity Falls for three weeks by now. He found his cellphone and showed them the picture.

"Shut. Up! It can't be!" Dipper said.

"Of course! How could we just forget about them?" Mabel said.

"Do you wanna include the rest of us?" Gruncle Stan said.

"The pterodactyl cubs! They found their way out of the cave," Mabel said. "Dipper do you realize what this means? Monster hunt!"

"Wow, you really think that you can take care of three fully grown dinosaurs?" FJ asked.

"Please. You're talking to the Mystery twins!"

Dipper said. He and Mabel fist bumped.

"Of course, if you would like to join us, then it would be easier for us," Mabel said.

"Yeah, let's all go!" Stan said.

Mabel thought about protesting, when Soos immediately continued: "Yeah dudes, it would be just like we used to! And we could call up Wendy, she could differently help us!"

It ended up with the whole table cheering: "Monster hunt! Monster hunt! Monster hunt! Monster hunt!"

o*o*o*

They all got up early the next morning to go as early as possible. They had prepared as much as possible last night: the bags were packed, the clothes was ready, the two sets of journals were lying ready on the table (Ford and Dipper hoped to get a change to study the dinosaurs habits and figure out how the had managed to survive without their mother).

After breakfast, Dipper turned on his cell, to text the others, to make sure they agreed on where and when they where going to meet, but he then realized, that he had gotten more than twenty unanswered calls from both his mother and father. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Uhh, Dipper? Have mom and dad also been calling you all night?" Mabel asked.

"Uhu..." Dipper nodded. "We better call them back."

The phone had barely rang one time, before his mothers voice screamed: "Dipper and Mabel Pines, where are you?!"

"Wh..What do you mean?" Dipper asked. "We are in Ohio, of course. With FJ and his grandfather!"

"Don't you lie to me, young man!"

"I'm not..." Dipper began, but then he heard it knocking on the door.

"Oh no! We've got to hide!" Mabel said, while Ford walked to open the door and Patricia and Brian marched in, looking anything but happy.

"Patricia, Brian!" Stan said in a very welcoming voice, while he rushed to his brother's side. "Come in! You'll see: this is all just one big misunderstanding..."

"Don't!" Patricia cut him of. They walked past the older pair of twins, and into the living-room, where they could see their kids.

"Dipper, Mabel!"

"How did you even know that we were here?" Dipper asked.

"Your sister posted this picture, last night!" Brian said and showed Dipper a picture on Facebook, of Mabel taking a selfie, with Dipper waving in the back and the text: "Getting ready for monster hunt tomorrow!"

"You posted that?!" Dipper almost yelled in frustration. He had thought it was just for her new scrapbook.

"Yeah, I was just so excited, and wanted to share it with others... and I might have been eating some raw sugar package..."

"Go pack your things. We are going home, now!"

"No!" Mabel said.

"Do as your mother says, Mabel."

"Actually we don't have to! We are 18 now, and you no longer have custody over us!" Dipper said.

"I wouldn't care if you were 50! There is no way, that I'm leaving my children in this dangerous town!"

"We are not in danger..."

"We saw a bear! With much more than one head..."

"Yeah, that's the Multi-bear, and he is the nicest guy I ever have met..!"

"Dipper, who do you actually think you can fool?" Brian asked. He walked to the table with the journals and grabbed one of the seconds and leafed through the pages. "Your own uncle has written three books, about the dangers in this town!"

"I have not written about the dangers in the town!" Ford protested. "It is very detailed research..."

"Really? Then how about this spell where it says ` warning´?"

"Spell?" Ford asked and raised and eyebrow. "What spell?"

"The one that goes: Triangulum, entangulum..."

"Dad no!" Mabel screamed, recognizing those words.

"...Veneforis dominus ventium. Veneforis venetisarium."

"NOOO!" Ford yelled! He ran towards Brian, who was bending forward, like his stomach was cramping.

"Brian!" Patricia yelled, while Ford tried to cover his mouth to prevent him from finishing the spell. But it was to late. Brian was already in the trance like state where kept repeating: "EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB! EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB! EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB! EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB! EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB! EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB!" Brian then collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily. Patricia rushed to his side.

"Breach yourself!" gruncle Stan yelled. The two pairs of twins quickly got together in the middle of the room, all standing back to back, Mabel with her grappling-hook, Dipper with the flashlight, Ford with his laser-gun and Stan with his bare fists, ready for his arrival. They had all known that the memory erasing-gun wouldn't be able to take him down for good.

But after standing like that for five minutes, they started to doubt. "Maybe his not gonna come back after all?" Mabel said hopeful. "Gruncle Stan probably took him down for good!"

"Yeah maybe that's possible..." Dipper mumbled, at the same time as Ford said: "We can't preclude the possibility..."

Suddenly a heart-rending scream filled the room and everybody turned their gazes towards Stan! His face was twisted in agony and his fingers was digging into his hair, pressing against his scull, and he kept screaming, while he tried to walk away from the rest of his family.

"Stanley!" Ford yelled.

"Gruncle Stan!" Mabel cried. She tried to run to him, but Dipper wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back. "Mabel, don't!"

There was nothing they could do to help him. No matter how much it hurt them, all they could do, was stand there and watch as Stan opened his eyes, which were glowing blue! He fell down onto his knees, still screaming in pain, with his forehead pressed against the floor!

Finally the room got quiet. It was like every sound died, with Stan's painful screaming, and all they could hear was breathing and their own hearts beating from fear. Dipper let go of his sister, and she slowly walked towards Stan, who wasn't moving. It didn't even look like he was breathing.

"Gruncle Stan?" she asked and kneeled down in front of him. The old man lifted his head. Mabel gasped and quickly got to her feet, walking backwards, when she saw the yellow eyes with rectangular pupils.

"Nope!" the piercing voice said, with a big smile. "But since it's you, Shooting star, you get two more guesses!"


	8. Chapter 8

The piercing laughter filled the room, as he stood up on his feet. No, as he stood up on Stan's feet. "Boy it is good to be back! Can you believe that it only has been six years? It feels like centuries!"

"Bill Cipher!" Ford growled. "Wow that was fast. Guess you haven't got completely senile yet, huh IQ?" Bill laughed. "Oh it's great to see you all here again! Pinetree, Shooting Star, Sixer!" He looked towards Brian and Patricia who both stared at him with shocked and confused eyes. Bill opened Stans arms and walked towards them. "And the parents! It's great to finally meet..."

Dipper quickly stepped between them and looked straight into his the yellow eyes. "What do you want, Bill?!"

Bill placed Stans hands on his hips. "Seriously? Aren't you suppose to be the smart twin, huh, kid? I want to restart my Weirdmageddon, what else do you think?! And this time, I'm not gonna let a wimpy, little boy stop me! Hey now that I think about it, haven't you gotten taller?" He held a hand over Dippers head. "Nah sorry, my bad, you are always just gonna be the little Dipper!"

Dipper clenched his fists. His height had always been a very weak spot, despite he had gotten taller over the years. "Well I was a lot smaller, the last three times, my family kicked your sorry ass, so how about that you get out of here, before we do it again?!"

Mabel walked up beside her twin-brother: "Yeah, get out of my gruncles head, you one-eyed demon!" Bill looked at both of them with a big smile. Suddenly, as fast as lightning, he had grabbed both of them, holding them by the neck, under each arm!

"No!" Patricia screamed, at the same time as Ford pulled his gun!

The yellow eyes turned to him. "Ah, ah, ah, Fordsy! If you shoot, you are gonna take me down, but you are also gonna take down, your dear twin-brother! Do you really want to lose him again?"

Fords hands were shaking! He remembered very clearly the unbearable pain he had felt six years ago, when he had to shoot his brother with the memory-gun... He couldn't go through it again.

Bill giggled when the gun hit the floor. "Clever choice, IQ. Now back to what Shooting Star said: I would love to ditch this, gross body, but thanks to you, I'm stuck here, until I get reconnected with my physical form. So here is, what is going to happen: You two," he looked by turn at Dipper and Mabel, who was struggling to breath, and get free, but they were no match for Stans strong arms. "are going to lead me to it. And the rest of you are gonna stay here and be good. You wouldn't want to do anything, that would make me have to kill these little prodigies right?"

No one said anything.

"Good. Now you, in the corner, with the brown hair? Could you be a sport, and do me a favor? You better said yes, or I might take it out on your kids, you know. Do you see those red books on the table? You used one of them to summon me. I would like you to burn them!"

"Dad, don't!" Dipper said half-strangled, which made Bill tighten his grip.

Brian stood up and grabbed the journals.

"No!" Ford yelled as he watched Brian throw the six books filled with years of work into the fire! Mabel managed to reach up and give Bill/Stan a slap in the face.

"Orh! Bad move, Shooting Star! You know what? Just for that, I'm gonna kill one of you, right now! Now who should it be? Eenie," He looked at Dipper "meenie," he looked at Mabel, "miney, y..." Suddenly Bills voice died with a half-strangled sound, his eyes got unfocused and he fell face first to the floor, with a red sedation arrow in the buttock!

"It works on all kinds of dinosaurs!" Old man McGucket cheered, while FJ ran over and helped Mabel free. "Mabel!"

"FJ..." she said with a hoarse voice, and grabbed his shoulders.

"Are you okay? What the heck is going one here?" he asked, while he helped her to her feet.

"Bill... Cipher!"

Ford was helping Dipper up, who cough terribly and rubbed his neck. Brian rushed to his son. "Dipper, are you all right?"

Dipper gave him a death-glare and stepped back. "Don't touch me," he hissed. "Do you even know what you have done?!"

"Dipper, please," Patricia said.

"No! He summoned, Bill Cipher! He is a maniac demon, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants!" Dipper had almost regained his normal voice.

"Well... then lets get home, at once..." Patricia began.

"No we are not leaving gruncle Stan like this!" Mabel said. "We've got to help him. He would do the same for us. He already has plenty of times!"

"She's right! We are not going anywhere! We are staying right here! But if you would leave, it would just be great, so you won't mess anymore up!" It wasn't often that Dipper would talk to his parents like, and everybody starred very surprised at him.

"We are not going anywhere, with out you."

"FINE! Then... just stay over there, and don't touch anything!" Dipper said.

Mabel didn't say anything. She was also angry with their parents. She looked down at gruncle Stan who was lying unconscious on the floor. But it wasn't her gruncle. It was Bill. Inside Stans body. Bill-Stan. Billey! And they had to get Bill out of there, before it was too late! "Uh, what do we do? What do we do?!" she asked.

"I.. I don't know, I trying to think!" Dipper said and walked back and forth. There had got to be a way. The problem was that he couldn't see it.

"Well, how did you defeat the first three times?" FJ asked.

"The first time we followed him into Stans mindscape," Dipper said.

"And we defeated him with kittens and laser eyes!" Mabel continued. "The second time, he tricked Dipper into letting him use him as a puppet, and I defeated him, by using Dippers weaknesses against him. Wait a minute. Gruncle Stan, are you here?!" she called out in the room. "If you are, then please show us!"

"I... don't think he is here, Mabel," Ford said. "I'm afraid that he is still inside his head, but Bill is the one in control." He knew the feeling way to well, himself.

"So... Stan is suppressed in the ID, while Bill has become the Super-ego," FJ said.

Everybody looked at him.

"I took a class in psychology."

"All right back to defeating Bill," Dipper said. "The last time, we defeated him, we hoped that it was for good. We used your grandfathers memory-gun to erase Bill, after tricking him into gruncle Stans mind."

"Can we maybe do that again?"

"No. I destroyed it, to make sure that we would never forget Gravity Falls," Mabel said.

"I..." McGucket said. "I suppose, that I could, make another one..."

"No!" Ford said. For plenty of reasons: First of all, he didn't want his friend to go through the pain, he probably would feel when he was reminded of the thoughts he had the first time, he made the memory-gun... Second of all, Ford wasn't sure, that Stans mind would be able to endure getting erased again, without being gone for good. "It wasn't enough to stop him last time. We have to make sure, that he will never come back."

"But how?" Mabel asked helplessly.

"I only know of one way," Ford mumbled.

"The Cipher-wheel," Dipper said. "But we'll need gruncle Stan for it to work."

"Well, since he's unconscious, maybe we could put him the right place and hold his hands, under the ritual?" Mabel suggested.

"That would be a opportunity..." Ford said. "But I'm afraid we won't be able to defeat Bill, as long he is inside Stans mind. And the only way to get him out, would be if he reunified with his physical form."

"The statue is still out in the woods. We could bring him out there..."

"No," Ford said. "Bill would know out intentions, if we did so."

The situation seemed hopeless. Bill was stuck inside Stans mind, and it would only be a matter of time, before he woke up again and none of them knew what to do about it. But then Dipper remembered what FJ had said, about Stan being suppressed inside his own mind... was it possible...? "FJ, if something is suppressed into the subconscious, would there then be a way to get it back to the conscious again?"

"Well yeah. If you for example suppressed a very bad memory, it would be possible to remember it again, if something similar happened," FJ answered.

"So... If gruncle Stan is suppressed, we could get him out of his subconscious!" Dipper said. "And then, we could defeat Bill with the Cipher-wheel."

"What exactly are you suggesting, Dipper?" Ford asked.

"We could use the spell from the third journal to go back into Stan's mind, get him out of his subconscious, and use the Cipher-wheel, to defeat Bill, inside Stans mind!"

"That... that actually could be a solution," Ford said. He glared towards Brian and Patricia who was sitting at the table. "If someone hadn't burned all the journals!"

"Don't worry, I've got that covered!" Dipper said. He rushed upstairs and came back with his laptop. "I had FJ help me scan the new journals into my computer," he explained, while he opened the document. "Here it is!"

"And you wonder why we call you paranoid," Mabel said. Dipper ignored her, and continued his plan: "All right, we'll need to call the others and make them come here as fast as possible."

"But what if Billey wakes up, while we are in there?" she asked.

"Billey?" Dipper asked. "Yeah: Bill and Stanley. You know like Bipper."

"Oh right, pretty clever. You're right. We have to make sure, that he can't get to the statue..."

"We could make a shield around him, like we did with the Shack," Ford suggested.

"Great idea. Mabel, you go get some more unicorn hair," Dipper said. "As much as possible. I suggest that we also Bill-proof the statue."

"Yeah! Time to beat up some uni-jerks!" she cheered.

"I'll go with you," FJ said and took her hand.

"Excellent! Fiddleford and I will collect the rest of the ingredients," Ford said. Dipper pulled out his phone, while the others left the room. The first person he called, was Pacifica, since she was the one who would take most time to come here.

"Dipper, hi," she said after the phone had rang once. "Pacifica, I need you to come to Gravity Falls as fast as possible," Dipper said. "Bill is back, and we can't defeat him without you!"

Pacifica gasped. "I'll be there in three hours," she said, before she hung up. Dipper didn't take his time to wonder how she was planning on traveling 2670 km in three hours, but continued calling the others.

"Hello, dude?" Soos asked. "I'm sorry if I'm late, but little Lee is not to happy to have his diaper changed."

"Soos, Bill is back, and he has processed gruncle Stan!"

"Oh no! I'm coming as fast I can, dude, I'll just go tell Melody!" He hung up, and Dipper immediately called the next.

"Hey, man, I'm one my way," Wendy said.

"Wendy, Bill is back!"

"What, are you serious?!"

"Yes! Go get Robbie and be here as fast as possible, all right?"

"Got it!" He was just about to call Gideon, when Soos busted in, very out of breath.

"Mr. Pines!" he gasped.

"Soos, we don't have time to freak out, help me place him in the chair," Dipper said.

Soos managed to get a hold of himself, and helped Dipper place Billey in the chair. Soos caught sight of the parents, who looked at Billey with terrified eyes. "Oh, Mr. and mrs. Pines! Erh... Dipper and Mabel are not here... I mean..."

"Don't worry about them, Soos," Dipper mumbled.

"Oh, all right. So when did you arrive?"

"Less, than an hour ago," Dipper said. "And they have already managed to summon Bill, and possibly doom the world as we know it." He didn't looked at his parents, but called Gideon instead.

He immediately jumped in the fastest car he had and raced towards the Shack. He picked Wendy and Robbie up on the way, and were in the Shack a few minutes later, almost at the same time as Ford and McGucket returned. Dipper explained to all of them what had happened and didn't leave out the fact, that it was his parent's fault.

About half an hour later, Mabel and FJ returned, on the back of the multi-bear, who made both Patricia and Brian scream, but no one bothered to as much as look at them. "Mabel told me, what happened," the multi-bear said. "Is there any way that I can help?"

"Yes. If gruncle Stan wakes up, make sure that he won't escape the house. We are gonna place a force field around, but we can't be too careful. If he manages to escape, he'll try the get to the statue of Bill in the wood. We are putting a force field around that, too, but still: make sure that he won't get to it no matter what, okay?"

"But, promise me that you won't hurt him, all right?" Mabel asked, after she had given the unicorn hair to gruncle Ford, who immediately started on the Bill-proofing around his unconscious brother. The last thing they needed to worry about, was running out of unicorn hair. Mabel and FJ had brought back what seemed to be most of a unicorn's tale and mane.

"I promise," the multi-bear said.

"Good, and while you are at it, make sure, that they, won't make any more problems," Dipper said and looked at his parents. The multi-bear just nodded.

Ford and Dipper went out to Bill-proof the statue. Now all they needed, was Pacifica. It had almost been about two and a half hours since Dipper had called her. Mabel looked at gruncle Stan. Now and then he would make a snoring sound, like he was asleep. But she knew that he wasn't and it almost scared her to dead.

"Don't worry, kiddo," McGucket said. "If he wakes up, we'll just give him another shot. I've got plenty!"

"Can't we risk giving him too much?" Mabel asked.

"Nope. I invented this last night. What ever kind of dinosaur I shoot, the arrow will measure the weight of it and if it already has been shot before, so it won't have more than it can handle!"

Suddenly they could hear a very loud sound, over the house.

"What's happening?!" Mabel yelled. "I don't know!" Dipper answered. Both the twins ran outside, where they saw a jet land in front of the Shack. The door was opened and a tall girl with her blond hair tied up in a bun jumped out. She waved to the pilot who took of. "Dipper, Mabel!" she yelled, before she ran over and hugged them.

"Pacifica?!" Mabel gasped. "Wow, you've change. I love those pants!"

"Thanks!"

"How did you get a jet to fly you here?" Dipper asked.

"He owed me a favor. Now come on, we have to stop Cipher!" she said.

The twins nodded and the back ran into the house.

"All right, everybody!" Dipper called to catch their attention. "Long story short: Bill is stuck in Stans mind, and the only way we can defeat him, is if we get in there, find Stan and preform the ritual of the Cipher-wheel! Does everyone understand the plan?"

Everybody agreed.

"Before we go, it's important that you all know, that everything is possible inside Stans mindscape," Dipper explained. "Everything you can imagine, can happen in there. It gives us an advantage, but Bill can do exactly the same, if not better than us. The mind is his home ground and we have to stay alert all the time!"

"Also, we have to remember that all of us have some dirty secrets, so what ever we see in there, don't judge Stan, all right?" Mabel said.

Once again everybody agreed.

"Good. Everybody place a hand on Stans head."

Everybody got closer and did as he said.

"Multi-bear, as soon as we are gone, get my laptop out of Billeys sight, all right?"

"Yes."

"Good. FJ, we could really use your help in this. Will you come with us?"

FJ hesitated, but then stepped between Mabel and his grandfather, and placed his hand on Stans head.

Dipper looked at his laptop. "Videntus omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus. Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! MAGISTER MENTIUM!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait :( I've had a lot on my mind the last month, but now I'm back!

"Wow, this is..." FJ didn't know how to describe it. As soon as Dipper had finished the spell, all he had been abel to see was a very bright light, surrounding them, and he had felt a very... weird pull in his arm, like he was being sucked, towards... Stans head? And now they were here... He didn't know what he had expected it would be like, to litteraly be inside a persons head, but it was differently way beyond everything else he had seen here in Gravity falls, and he thought he had seen the weirdest things, he ever would see in his whole life the last couple of weeks.

As he looked around, he was surprised to see that everything around him seemed familiar. It actually looked like they were in front of the Mystery Shack. Except from the swing set and the large boat, it actually looked like the spell, Dipper had preformed, had teleported them outside, instead of into Stans mind... But he knew that they weren't just outside.

Aside from the boat and swing set, the whole atmosphere seemed... he didn't know how to describe it, but the most fitting word would be "weird". FJ looked around and saw the others getting to their feet. It wasn't before now, that he realized that he was sitting on the ground.

Almost everybody seemed as surprised as FJ, when they saw what Stans mind was like. Even Ford looked around with an analyzing look, which caught on the swing set.

"Are everybody here?" Dipper called. He made a quick counting, to be sure. "All right, I know, that this all seems very frightening, but..."

"Erh, dude, " Soos said. "Are you sure, that we are in the right mind?"

"The right... What?" It wasn't before now, that Dipper himself noticed that everything seemed much, brighter around them. He turned around, and when he saw the Shack, his eyes widened, and his jaw fell open. "Shut... up!"

"What is the matter?" Ford asked, when the twins just starred at the Shack. It looked just like it did in real life, which shouldn't be so peculiar, since Stan had lived there, most of his life.

"It's so..." Mabel began.

"Different, from last time," Dipper finished.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, last time, everything was so... dark in here. The Shack was like a haunted house," Dipper explained.

"Yeah, and there were these creepy Stan-bats, that kept screaming `No refunds! No refunds!´" Mabel said.

"How come it's all different now?" Dipper mumbled.

"Hmm," FJ said. "Did something life-changing happen to Stan, since you were here last time?"

Dippers glanced shortly at Great uncle Ford, before he looked back at FJ. "You could say that... Why?"

"It's only a theory, but if a lot of bad things happened in Stans past, his mind probably would get very dark..." FJ said. Stan had often mentioned some of the crimes he had committed. He would make it sound like he was proud of them, but FJ had a feeling, that Stan was trying to turn the bad memories into fun stories. "If something major happened... something that would change his life for the better, his mind would probably get brighter."

Ford, Dipper and Mabel exchanged looks. They all knew FJ was right. Stan and Ford reuniting and `hugging it out´had been something Stan had wished for, most of his life. Even though it had happened after he lost his memory, it would probably take away a lot of darkness from his heart and mind...

Dipper cleared his throat. "Even though it looks bright on the outside, it is still a maze on the inside, filled doors, that each shows one of Stans memories." Dipper remembered how Bill had explained it to them, seven years ago, but he pushed the memory away. "It is very important, that we stay together all the time. No one leaves the group!"

Everybody seemed to agree on that, and Dipper turned to FJ. "You said that gruncle Stan was suppressed into the ID. Do you have any idea where the ID would be?"

"Well, according to Freuds personality theory, the super-ego is the top, the ego in the middle and the IS is the bottom. So I would say that if the mind was a house the super-ego is the ceiling, ego is in the living-room and the ID, is in the basement."

"Good, then that's where we are going," Dipper said.

"We have no time to waste. We need to find Stan, before Bill finds us," Ford said.

"Then I know somebody who can help us," Mabel said. "Rise Xyler and Craz!" Suddenly two very colorful men, stood on each of her sides.

"Who are they?" FJ asked, as the two men started to praise Mabel.

Dipper sighted. "Two of the million boys she had a crush on, when we were younger."

"Million?"

"Yeah, she really wanted a boyfriend, when we were kids. Luckily, she is more stabile now."

"Hmm..." For some reason, FJ really didn't like seeing Mabel with those guys...

"All right, everybody, let's go!" Dipper called, when everybody seemed very fascinated by Mabels dream boys. He led them through the door, and just as he had expected, the Shack was still a huge maze on the inside, filled with doors and staircases, but it was all brighter than last time. As soon as they interred the memory part, they started looking for the door or passage that would lead them to the basement.

"It's is fun to open doors and close them," Xyler said.

"Yeah, and it is good to help, bro," Craz said.

Ford found a door where the words `top secret´were written. Figuring that the ID, mostly was the things you forget, he opened it, only to find the memory of his brother, talking to and feeding his tommy.

"Yeesh," Ford frowned. He quickly closed the door and continued.

"Hey!" Mabel said. "This was when we defeated the zombi apocalypse, Dipper raised."

"We really sounded awful," Dipper mumbled, as he could hear the three of them. "No wonder the zombies heads exploded."

Suddenly one of the zombies from Stans memory, came very close the open door, with a large growl. Mabel screamed an jumped back, while Dipper smacked the door!

"Are you alright?" FJ asked, Mabel putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, covering his hand with hers.

The group continued down the halls, opening every door the came past.

"So how did Bill get into Stan's mind anyway?" Pacifica asked. "Our dad wanted to prove how dangerous, Gravity falls is," Mabel answered.

"So he decided to read out loud the spell, since it said `warning´ over it," Dipper added.

"Seriously?" Pacifica asked. "Who is stupid enough to read out loud a spell with warnings?"

"Well, I would say that, that could happen to anybody, ye know," Gideon mumbled behind them, while Ford mumbled something like: "Anyone, who doesn't know better, could make that mistake."

Pacifica looked over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow, but both of them avoided her look. She then remembered that it was Ford who had summoned the demon in the first place, and looked away, regretting her words. The past years, she had tried to teach herself that she wasn't better than everybody else, but from time to time, she would still forget her manners. She still hated herself for the way she had treated Mabel, when they were kids.

Dipper didn't say anything, but he found himself agreeing with her. Reading out loud a spell you knew was dangerous, just to prove a point, was one of the worst ideas his father had had, and Dipper wondered why he would do such thing. Sure: he had been angry, that the twins had lied, but still: it was a huge overreaction.

"Arh, we've been walking forever!" Robbie said after a while. "How do we even know, that we are going the right way?"

"We don't," Dipper said. "I told you: Stan's Mindscape is like a maze. We'll just have to keep looking, until we find it." And hopefully they wouldn't run into Bill while they were here. He was actually surprised that, they hadn't met him yet, but that was probably pure dumb luck...

"So we are just gonna keep walking around in here?" Robbie sulked, pulling up his hood. "Hey I know what will cheer you up, dude," Soos said. "How about some snacks?"

"And where do you want to find snacks in here?" Robbie growled.

"From the vending machine behind a curtain, we walked past a few minutes ago."

"Vending machine?" Ford repeated. The whole group stopped.

Dipper and Mabel exchanged looks. They had seen Soos look behind it, but since he hadn't said anything, they had thought that it had just been another one of Stan's memories. Of course!

"Soos, why didn't you say anything?"

"Oh I'm sorry, dude. I didn't think you wanted snacks."

"No, I mean... org... Just come on!" Dipper and Mabel led the group back down the hall, until they found the curtain. Mabel pulled it aside and right in front of them was a vending machine identical to the one they had had in the Shack. Dipper typed the code A-1-B-C-3, while many of the others looked at him with confused eyes. Just as Dipper expected, Vending machine swung open, and revealed a staircase.

"Stay close, everyone," Dipper said. He hesitated a few seconds, but then started to walk down, with Mabel right behind him, holding a hand on his shoulder, followed by Ford and the rest of the group. The staircase was much longer than any of them had thought. It seemed like it would never end, and it was like it got darker around them for every step they took. After about fifteen steps, Dipper instructed everyone to make a light with their mind, to make sure that they could see where they were going.

At last, they made it to the elevator, that somehow was big enough for all of them at once. Just like the stairs, the elevator seemed to take forever, to take them all the way down. Even though they still had their lights, it seemed like everything got darker around them, the further down they came. It wasn't much of a surprise, since they were going to the place, with all the things Stan had forgotten or wanted to forget. Finally the elevator stopped at the bottom of Stans mind. His ID.

Dipper, Mabel and Ford, were the first to get out of the elevator and used their minds to make the lights as large as possible. Their eyes widened, when the light eksposed what was hidden in the darkness. They were standing on some large stone like ground. Above them, lots of small doors were hanging. They could only guess that they were hiding memories from Stan's past, but that was not what shocked them. It was the sight of what was right in front of them: the portal!

"Oh my..." Ford began as he just starred at it. It looked just like the one he had built so many years ago. Also the the computer systems and control panels around it, was exactly like... Dear Lord... Ford knew, that Stan had spend almost all of his life, trying to bring him back, but he had never truly understood, exactly how much of his body and soul, his brother had put into the work, to get him back... but this told him everything needed to know and it like a huge stab in his heart...

"We have to turn it on," Ford finally said. There was no doubt: Stan was stuck in the portal and they had to get him out as fast as possible. Ford immediately started to tell the rest what to do. "Fiddleford, I'm going to need your help over here," Ford said, starting to type a long list of codes into the computer. "Fiddleford!" He called again, when McGucket didn't come to his side.

Ford turned around and saw his friend, just standing there, starring at the portal. He kept opening his mouth like he was going to say something, but closed it again.

"Fiddleford?" Ford asked, this time less commanding and more concerned.

"Grandpa?" FJ asked, reaching a hand towards him.

"Y..yroo," McGucket said.

"What...?"

"Yroo... Xrksvi... Grizmtov..."

"What's that suppose to mean...?"

"YROO! XRKSVI! GIRZMTOV!" McGucket said again this time in much more panicking voice, still starring at the portal, that now had been turned on, filling the room with lots of colors. "YROO! XRKSVI! GIRZMTOV! YROO! XRKSVI! GIRZMTOV!"

"Fiddleford, get a hold on yourself!" Ford called.

The familiar words made him snap... McGucket, opened his mouth wide and a hoarse scream made it's way from his throat! He threw his light towards it, and turned around, running towards the elevator!

"Grandpa!" FJ yelled. He dropped his light and followed his grandfather, who had made his way into the elevator and was hitting the bottoms as hard as he could, from pure panic and fear! "Grandpa, stop!" FJ ran into the elevator and tried to pull McGucket away from the bottoms, but before he managed to do so, the door closed behind him, and the elevator started to go back up.

"No wait! FJ!" Mabel yelled. She ran towards the elevator, but it was too late. "FJ! Come back! Please! Come back!" she called as she stopped where the elevator had and looked up into the dark void, where it had disappeared. "Dipper, we have to do something! We have to follow them!" she said, running back to him and grabbing his shirt. "Please! We have to get them back before Bill finds them!"

"And we will!" Dipper said, grabbing her wrists. "I promise: we'll find both FJ and McGucket, as soon as we've gotten gruncle Stan out of his ID, all right? I promise, that we'll find them."

Mabel breathed deeply. She was worrying sick for what could happen to FJ and McGucket, who had never been here before! But she also knew that Dipper was right: they had to get gruncle Stan out first. She took a last deep breath, and nodded.

They managed to fire up the portal, and Ford adjusted it to send Stan out, as fast as possible. Now all they had to do was wait.

"Look!" Mabel said and pointed at the middle of the portal, where a little black spot was getting bigger and bigger!

"Step back!" Ford ordered all of them, when he realized that Stan would arrive with a higher speed than he had first calculated. It only took a few more seconds before Stan was shot out of the portal, landing face first on the ground.

"Urh... aw... everything hurts..." Stan mumbled as he got to his feet.

Mabel rushed over and hugged him.

"Mabel..." Stan exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Speaking of... where the heck are we?!"

"We are inside your mind, Stanley," Ford said. "Really? It looks more like your old lab," Stan said. He started bruising of his suit, and looked around wondering why the heck there was so many of their friends here.

"We'll explain on the way," Dipper said. "Right now, we have to find FJ and McGucket, so we can defeat Bill, once and for all!"


	10. Chapter 10

"Grandpa, come back!" FJ called, running as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast, since he never had been very athletic. As soon as the elevator door had opened, McGucket had ran out of it, like it was on fire! FJ had followed him up the stairs and was now trying to catch up with his grandfather, who was running down the twisted halls, opening and closing random doors!

"Grandpa!" FJ called again, but it was like he couldn't get through to him, at all!

"I've gotta get outta here! Exit! Where are ya?!" McGucket screamed, as he opened another door, and then continued further down the hall and down a long staircase. FJ could feel a side stitch coming, and he knew that he couldn't keep running much longer, but he couldn't just let him get away. Heck, what if Bill found him? FJ didn't even dare to think of what that could lead to... No he had to think of a way, to stop him.  _"Come on, FJ, think, darn it!"_ He told himself.

According to Dipper, everything you could think of, was possible inside the mindscape. Which meant that it should be possible for him to come up with something, that would make it possible for him to catch up with his grandfather.

Catch... Of course!

Still running, he imagined a lariat. _"Come on, FJ, you only get one shot at this, so you better do it right!"_

He started swinging it over his head, and then threw it. The noose flew through the air and somehow, to FJ's surprise, it landed around McGucket! FJ instantly pull the rope, making his grandfather fall back and land on his behind.

"No! Let me out! I've gotta get out of here!" McGucket screamed, as FJ pulled him backwards. "My mind! I don't wanna lose my mind!"

"Grandpa!" FJ said, but McGucket kept wailing about loosing his mind.

FJ put his hand on his shoulders. "Grandpa, look at me!" McGucket finally went quiet, and looked at his grandson. "You have to calm down."

"FJ... I don't wanna go back to being a crazy old hillbilly."

FJ, who was already panting form the chase, gasped when he realized that his grandfather's eyes were starting to get wet from tears! "Grandpa, I..." he began, not really knowing what to say.  _"Come on, FJ pull yourself together!"_  "You won't!"

"Won't I?"

"No! That's not who you are anymore...!"

"I don't know... What is... I'm not sure if..." McGucket's eyes were flickering, like he was still trying to escape.

"Grandpa, please, listen!" FJ said. "I know that the sight of the portal made a lot of bad memories come back, and that you just want to forget them. But they are in the past, they can't hurt you anymore, as long as you don't let them."

"I don't know if I can..."

"I know you can!" FJ almost yelled. Normally he would say that he was in control of his emotions, but right now he had to fight not to lose it, from seeing his grandpa like this. "You are Fiddleford Hadron McGucket!"

"That's what I thought too, back then..."

"You're stronger than you were back then!" FJ felt his own eyes getting wet too... The old man seemed so fragile, and down right scared. "But you can't keep running... you have to accept that, that was who you once were and let it go!"

McGucket hesitated, while FJ, who was still holding his hands on his grandfather's shoulders, panted heavily. "Ya, really believe that I can do that...?"

"Of course, I do. As long as you fight for who you are, no one can take that away from you."

"Thank you, FJ. I think, I'm gonna be okay now," McGucket said with a weak smile. FJ untied the robe and hugged his grandpa. "Now, come on. We better find the others, before..."

"Before what?" a high-pitched voice sounded.

FJ and McGucket looked around but they couldn't see him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt this adorable moment, between the two of you!"

o*o*o*

"All right, so let me see if I get this straight," Stan said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Dipper and Mabel had once told him about the time they had defeated Bill inside his mind, and he had laughed at the story, thinking that it was entertaining, but he had never in his wildest imagination, dreamed that  _this_  was what it was like. Even for a guy who had lived in Gravity falls most of his life, this was just too weird.

It was one thing to be inside your own mind, and hook down a dream-demon to save your family, while you practically die in the process. But having most of your family and friends walking around inside your mind, to defeat the same demon, while they were able to see all of your memories... That just seemed like too much weirdness for one day.

Speaking of... Why was this so different from when he defeated Bill, single-handed? As he remembered it - even after having his mind erased - it was like a huge void, with only one room. Stan had assumed that that was just what his mind was like, since he never used it much, but seeing it now... seemed like he wasn't just some empty-headed knucklehead, after all... "Brian summoned Bill and he is stuck inside my mind?"

"Yep," Dipper answered, and opened another door to another memory, only to conclude that FJ or McGucket weren't in there either. He really hoped that they hadn't strayed into one of Stan's memories, but they had to check, to make sure.

As usual, Stan put up the tough-guy facade, but truth to be told, he had at least a couple of memories he didn't want the others to see. "So you guys used a spell to follow him into my mind, to find me, so we can use that Cipher-wheel-thing?"

"That is correct," Ford said.

"But now ya've lost, Fiddle one and two, so they are running around inside my head?"

"Yes, and we have to find them before Bill does!" Mabel said.

"Don't worry, I promise that we'll find them," Dipper said.

"How? This place is like a maze," Stan said.

Dipper gave him an angry look. "There is nothing to worry about. Both of them are smart enough to find their way around." He prayed silently that he was right. He didn't want to worry Mabel, but he feared for what would happen if FJ and McGucket ran into Bill... or if they did, for that matter. They had no choice, but walking around until they would find them.

Dipper had also started to wonder what would happen, if the sedation, McGucket had shot Stan with, wore of before they managed to get out of here. Would Bill be in control? Or would Gruncle Stan, now that he was free of his ID? And what would happen to the rest of them, if he woke up? Would they end up out side Stan's mind? Dipper could only hope that they wouldn't find out…

"Is it just, me or does everything seems to get darker and darker around here?" Pacifica asked.

She was right. Everything around them had seemed pretty bright but since they had walked down the last staircase, everything seemed to become, more grey and nearly black, around them as they walked further down hall...

"Yeah..." Dipper mumbled. "I wonder why..."

"Because we're in the part of the mind, with all the sad memories, dummy," Robbie said.

"And what makes you so sure about that, huh?" Wendy growled.

"Uh duh; Dark colors symbolizes sadness and depression."

Now that Dipper thought about it, the last couple of memories he had seen were pretty sad. Hopefully they wouldn't come across the one where Stan was kicked out, or Ford was shoved into the portal...

"Erh... I don't know about ya'll, but I say that we get out of here, fellas!" Gideon said.

"No! Not without FJ and McGucket!" Mabel said.

"Well I suggest that we go through this part as fast as possible," Ford said. This part of his brother's mind made ham feel very uncomfortable, sad even. It almost felt like the few times Stan had been crying when they were kids, and Ford had tried to comfort him.

Stan opened another door to one of his memories, and felt his heart drop. Shit! This was exactly one of those memories, he didn't want the kids to see! But before he managed to close it again, a heart-rending cry sound from the memory and trough the hall.

"Mom?!" Mabel yelled, recognizing her mother's cry. Both of the twins rushed to the door, opening it wide. They saw a younger version of gruncle Stan, who looked like he was around his late forties, sitting in the back of a church, looking very sad. It was a funeral. The church was filled with people, flowers and tears...

The twin's eyes quickly found their mother, who was crying on the top of a closed coffin. A younger version of their father was patting her back, in an attempt to comfort her, but the tears were running down his cheeks as well.

"This must be grandpa's funeral," Dipper said, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder.

"But... isn't that grandpa?" Mabel asked and pointed at a man, who had now walked up to Patricia and Brian.

"You're right..." Dipper said. Their grandfather had died, when they were only three years old, so they only remembered him from pictures, but that was definitely him!

"But... who died then?" Mabel looked around and her eyes caught on a picture of a young boy, that couldn't be much older than 7 years old, who looked a lot, like Dipper. Under the picture was written:  _"In memories of Jeremy Pines. You will never be forgotten"_

"Who's Jeremy Pines?" Dipper asked quietly. Both of them looked at gruncle Stan, who was watching the memory with a sad look. He sighted and said: "Kids... there is something, that I... We… probably should've told ya..."

The others had gradually gathered around the door.

"You see, erh... I don't really know how to put this... erm..." Stan said and scratched the back of his head, not looking at them. "You have to understand that...erh..."

"Understand what?" Dipper asked frustrated. Why was his mother crying about this boy? And why did he have a feeling that he was suppose to know about him?

Stan kept hesitating, and Dipper looked at great uncle Ford, who was standing a few steps away from his brother, but he just shrugged in response, being just as clueless and confused as Dipper and Mabel were feeling.

"Gruncle Stan, who is Jeremy?" Dipper tried again, this time raising his voice.

"Jeremy was... your older brother."

Almost the whole group gasped, looking at Stan, while the others just stared at him, in shock.

"What!?" Dipper exclaimed.

"Bu... But we don't have an older brother!" Mabel said.

"Yeah, you did, pumpkin..." Stan said. "He died long before you were born."

"No..." Mabel said, tears were filling her eyes. It couldn't be true... It just couldn't!

"Mabel, listen..." Stan began. "We thought that it would be for the best, if you didn't know..."

"No!" Mabel yelled and covered her ears. Tears were now running down her cheeks! "NO!"

Suddenly a big pink hamster-ball surrounded her, pushing everyone, including Dipper, Stan and Ford away.

"Mabel!" she heard someone call, but she turned around and ran, as fast as she could, away from the memory, away from her... Brother... An older brother... who had died... who no one had told them about...

It was all just too much for her to handle... She had to get out, she had to get away! She ran, as fast as she could through the twisted halls, up and down the staircases… But no matter how much further away, she came from the others, she couldn't run from it... The image of her crying parents kept flashing before her eyes... the coffin... the picture of Jeremy... Her big brother, who was dead. Who she was never gonna meet, because he had been taken away, before she was even born... it wasn't fair... It just wasn't fair!

Mabel stopped running. Tears were still running from her eyes, as she sat down, leaning against the wall, gasping for air. She made a large, grey sweater, which she curled herself up in and started sobbing loud and uncontrollably.

"Mabel?" a familiar voice sounded, outside from "Sweater Town". She pulled down the turtleneck and saw FJ sitting in front of her.

"FJ!" she exclaimed and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. She looked around, but she didn't see McGucket anywhere. "Where is your grandpa?"

"Oh... I'm still looking for him..." FJ explained. "But what about the others? Where are they?"

"I.. I ran away from them..." Mabel began. Suddenly she realized what a huge mistake she had made. This was a perfect chance for Bill to get to her! "Oh no, we've got to get back to them!"

She got to her feet, but FJ grabbed her hand, preventing her from running. "Wait. First you tell me what is wrong," he said.

Mabel's eyes got filled with tears again. "Oh FJ... I just found out that I have... Or I don't have... because... because…!"

"Easy, easy now," FJ said and cupped her face with his hands, wiping her tears away, with his thumbs. "It will be alright. Shh, it will be alright." He leaned closer, until his lips were pressed against hers.

Mabel kissed him back, but for some reason, it felt wrong... Something was wrong!

She pulled back, but he wrapped his arms around her.

"FJ..." she began, but her throated constrict and her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach, when she opened her eyes and looked at him. He was smiling widely, and his eyes were glowing yellow, with squared pupils!

He opened his mouth and the high-pitched voice said: "What's the matter, Shooting star?"


	11. Chapter 11

"As you probably know, then your parents fell in love with each other in high school. They had barely graduated, before they realized that your mother was pregnant. My ma... erh... your great grandmother, was all pro-life, you know, and would never forgive Patricia, if she didn't keep the baby," Stan explained. He had no idea what else to do, so he had decided to tell the story, to try to make up for it.

But Dipper didn't respond. The boy hadn't spoken a single word, since Mabel had run away from them. They had tried to follow her, but that damn hamster ball, had somehow made her twice as fast, and now she was gone!

"So both your parents gave up on college to raise the kid together. I only saw him something like two or three times, but every time, your parents were so happy. Even though it wasn't easy, they managed to form a perfectly, happy little family. Well... that was until, um, the accident... I never really got to understand how it happened, but it was something about, that your dad and Jeremy were going to the park, and Jeremy was running around, near a small river..." Stan explained. He just wished that the kid would say something, or at least look at him. "Your parents were devastated for years and they refused to accept any kind of help. It seemed like all they wanted to do was sitting there in a small bubble of sadness, doing what ever they thought could ease the pain and just, make them forget. The whole family feared that they would never be able to move on. But then they found out that your mother was pregnant again. With you guys!"

Dipper still didn't respond. He just kept walking in front of Stan, with large and quick steps. His fists were clenched, telling Stan that he probably shouldn't have mentioned forgetting and pain easing... Dipper could easily figure out what he was talking about.

"Well, after you were born, both of your parents seemed to lighten up. They would get out more, and just seemed to go back to the people they used to be... But they never talked about Jeremy…" Stan continued, not mentioning, that Shermie had told him, that they had gotten rid of all the stuff they had bought for Jeremy, after they found out that they were pregnant, and bought all new stuff for the twins. "We feared that they would slip back into their depressions, if they were reminded, so your grandpa and me, agreed that we simply wouldn't mention him, unless your parents did. And they never did, so neither did we. We thought that it would be for the best…"

Dipper stopped abruptly, almost causing Stan to walk into him, but he managed to stop, before Dipper turned around, with eyes blazing with anger. "Oh yeah! And look what that _great_ idea led to!" He spun around again, and walked as fast as he could, towards Soos and Wendy, who were walking further ahead.

"Kid…" Stan said and reached for him, but a hand was put on his shoulder, preventing him for following his nephew. Stan looked up and into his twin-brothers eyes.

"Just leave him be. He needs time to process this," Ford said quietly.

Stan tried to figure out what Ford was thinking, but he couldn't read his face. "What? Aren't you gonna make some kind of smart-ass comment about how I once again screwed up?"

Ford sighted. He knew that his brother for years had felt like a failure. Ever since they were kids, he knew that Stan had felt like that. He had been better at hiding it back then, though. Whenever he had gotten a bad grate or detention, he had always tried to hide it underneath his laughter and hard words about how dumb school and rules were, but Ford had always been able to see it in his eyes. "Stanley, you can't blame the kids for being angry. They had a brother who died and no one told them about, and never have had the chance to grieve for. Our reactions would probably have been similar, if we had been in their places," Ford said.

"I should've told them!" Stan said looking away from his brother. He remembered how badly it turned out last time he had kept something form the kids. He remembered how they had reacted: Dipper had been furious, Mabel had been confused not wanting to believe that all she saw was true... Just like now. If he had just told them, they would only have half of the trouble they had now.

"No, Stanley," Ford said. "I know how much you care about the kids, but it simply wasn't your place to tell them. If anyone should have told them, it was Brian and Patricia."

"Hmm..." Stan grunted. Deep down he knew that Ford was right. Like he always was... "And how about you, huh? Ain't you pissed too?"

"Well, I'll have to admit that I'm not exactly thrilled that you kept this information about the family from me... But this simply isn't about me. It's about Dipper and Mabel, who'll have to find a way to deal with this, after we have defeated Bill once and for all." Stan sighted. They wouldn't be able to defeat the one-eyed demon, before they found Mabel and McGucket. Stan prayed silently that they would be all right.

o*o*o*

FJ was the first of them to wake up only to realize that he seemed to be falling. The realization caused him to panic and scream on the top of his lungs, fearing for the ground he would be hitting, in a few seconds, that without doubt would kill him! But after screaming in what seemed like forever, and his throat started to become soar, he stopped. He still couldn't see the bottom of the hole and something told him, that he wouldn't see it any time soon... He began to look around. Everything seemed dark around him. What part of the mind could this be?

His first intuition was the ID... Could this be where Stan had been before they freed him from the portal? But in that case, why were they falling? It didn't make any sense. Of course it would almost be too obvious that Bill would place them here, since they had already been here earlier and the others probably wouldn't be looking for them here. Heck the others didn't even know that Bill had taken them... Them...

"Grandpa!" FJ gasped. He once again started to panic, as he looked around. Where was he? What if Bill had killed him?! "Grandpa?!" He started feeling like a little kid, who had gotten lost in the grocery store, and couldn't find his parents as the panic spread inside his body. "Grandpa!" This couldn't be happening. This could simply not be happening! He had finally got to meet his grandfather, after all these years. He had finally got a real relationship with the man he was named after and hand looked up his entire life.

The tears started to fill his eyes. What was he gonna do? And what about the others? What would happen to them, if his grandfather was gone? They couldn't complete the Cipher-Wheel without him... Maybe... Maybe FJ could do it? Maybe the Wheel was powered by genetics? If that was so, FJ should be able to do it. No it was a stupid idea... FJ knew that their almost identical looks wouldn't be enough. FJ wasn't nearly as brave or smart as his grandfather. He would never be able to live up to whatever kinds of standards the Wheel would have set for his grandfather.

"Huh? Mhrr..."

FJ suddenly heard a sound above his head. He looked up felt a stone fall from his heart. His grandfather was only a few feet above him. "Grandpa!" FJ almost screamed from pure relief. Bill hadn't killed him. He was actually alive! "Grandpa wake up!" He reached up and grabbed the older mans shoulders. "Grandpa!"

"Wha... What's happening...?" McGucket blinked several times and looked down at his grandson. "FJ, what are you doing down there, boy?"

"I..." FJ began, but he had no idea what to answer. "Listen, I'm not sure where we are, but it seems like Bill have trapped us in some kind of bottomless hole..."

McGucket looked around. "I know this place. This is the Bottomless Pit!"

"Bottomless Pit?" FJ repeated. "Yeah. I fell down here a couple of years ago, and just kept falling and falling and falling. But then it suddenly spit me up again, like I tasted bad."

"Right..." FJ mumbled. So this wasn't a part of Stan's mind, it was one of his memories! "We have to get out of here. Maybe if we just try to imagine that we go back up?"

"Well it's worth a shot!" McGucket answered. Both of them looked up, towards the small spot of light above them, focusing on it. Imagining that gravity would be reversed and the hole would become bigger, that they would get closer to the opening. But no matter how hard they tried, they just kept falling. They couldn't even make themselves fall slower.

"FJ, this ain't no good!" McGucket said.

"Keep trying!" FJ answered, still focusing on the hole. It had worked before, why didn't it work now?

"Hey look! Something is happening up there!" McGucket said and pointed at the small spot. He was right. A shadow was moving around above the opening.

"Hey, Glasses and Mini-glasses!" a piercing voice called. It was Bill! "I've gotten some company for the two of you!" He dropped something down into the hole, no someone! The person was falling fast, much faster than they were... FJ had no idea how that was possible, but as the person got closer, he realized who it was:

"Mabel!" He reached out his arms and managed to catch her, before she fell past them. She was so pale, and cold. She was barely breathing.

"What did you do to her, you monster!" FJ yelled towards the light spot.

"Oh don't you rack your little nerdy brain with that," Bill answered. "But she is probably going to be unconscious for a while, so if you guys wanna have some fun well, go ahead! I'm not gonna judge you!" Bill called to them.

The sight of the unconscious girl in his arms, made FJ's blood boil, and Bills disgusting suggestion, only made things much worse: Mabel was the kindest and most good hearted girl FJ ever had met. How dared Bill say something like that?! "Get down here and repeat that you, abhorrent demon!" FJ yelled.

"Oh, did I strike a nerve there?" Bill laughed. "I would love to repeat myself, but I've got something more important to take care of, bye!"

"Bill! When I get my hands on you, then...!" FJ called, but the demon was long gone. He turned his attention back to Mabel. She was so cold... FJ wished that he had a jacket to put over her, but it had been too hot to wear one. Instead he pulled her into his lab. He had no idea how long he sat like that, just holding her, trying to hold her warm with his own body, but it felt like forever. Finally her eyelids started to move.

"Mabel!" FJ exclaimed.

Mabel opened her eyes wide by the sound of his voice. "NO!" she exclaimed, as her eyes filled with a mix of panic of anger. "Let me go!" She started kicking about, doing everything in her power to get free.

"Mabel relax, I..." FJ tried, but she gave him a smack in the face and wrinkled herself free.

She was so angry both with Bill for fooling her and herself for getting fooled, and even kiss him! "You don't fool me twice, you stupid dorito!" she yelled and grabbed his head, using all of her strength to make him spin around.

"Kid, knock it off!" McGucket yelled. Mabel turned around. Her expression softened visibly. "McGucket...?" she asked. "But that means, Oh My Gosh, FJ I'm so sorry!"  She spun around and grabbed a hold of the poor guy, so he stopped spinning around.

Everything still seemed to be spinning, when he stopped, not to mention the nausea. "What a ride," he mumbled, and rubbed his eyes under the glasses.

Mabel wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "Sorry, sorry, sorry! I thought you were Bill, I..."

"It's okay, Mabel," FJ assured her, and held her close. "I'm just glad that you're alright."

"Aww, that's so sweet," McGucket said and snuffled. "Pull yourself together Fiddleford. Don't cry... in front the children!"

Mabel knew that she had gotten caught. She knew that FJ and McGucket were caught too, and that they were in big trouble. But somehow FJ's arms made her forget all of that, or at least worry less. About Bill, about her parents, about... Jeremy. Her older brother, who nobody had told them about. Everyone had kept him a secret. That wasn't fair! Nobody deserved to be forgotten like that! What if it had been Dipper or herself, who had died? Would everyone just try to forget them too? Mom? Dad? Gruncle Stan? Everyone?

Mabel didn't realize that she was crying, before FJ whispered that it would be all right, and stroked her back.

"We'll find away out of here, I promise," FJ said, even though he had no idea how on earth they were going to do it.

Mabel wanted to tell him what had happened. She wanted to tell him about gruncle Stan's memory, how he had known about her older brother, who had died, how she had ran away, how Bill had tricked her... but she knew that that wasn't what was important right now. No. What was important right now was to get back to the others, so they could defeat Bill.

She breathed deeply before she let go of FJ. "I'm good, now," she said and looked around. It wasn't before now, that she realized that they were falling in the air. She gasped, but forced herself not to panic. "By the way; where are we?"

"The Bottomless Pit in one of your uncles memories," FJ explained. "Bill trapped us here."

"Why don't you just imagine that you get out of here?"

"We already tried that," FJ said. "Apparently we can't control what is happening the same way, as long as we are inside one of Stan's memories."

"But that doesn't make sense. Dipper told me that gruncle Stan fixed a hole in his stomach, after he had fallen into one of the memories."

FJ chose to ignore that she had said that Dipper had had a hole in his stomach. "Strange..." he mumbled. "Why isn't it possible, now, when it was back then?"

"Uh! I think I know!" McGucket exclaimed. "Stan was the one who fixed the hole! Only the owner of the memories can decide what can happen in them!"

FJ and Mable exchanged looks. It sounded as a rational theory, but unfortunately it didn't help their situation.

"Don't you worry, guys," Mabel said. "I've been in the Bottomless Pit before and eventually it will send us back up."

"We have been down here a while," FJ said, rubbing his neck.Everything seemed pretty hopeless at this point.

 "Well, then it's probably gonna happen, right now!" Mabel said. "Riiight now. Heh, anytime now, Pit, you can do it."

But nothing happened. They were stuck down here...

o*o*o*

Dipper couldn't remember the last time he had been this frustrated. Why had no one told them about their older brother? They had the right to know about this! It was _their_ brother! The brother they were suppose to grow up with, but never had gotten to meet! After all these years, people had chosen to ignore the fact that he had ever been alive. His parents had completely erased their own son from their lives, believing that the best way to handle the pain was by forgetting the reason behind it, or what was worse.Form what gruncle Stan had said, it sounded like Mabel and himself was nothing but a drunken accident. They were probably lucky that they hadn't got more messed up from their mothers drinking, or what ever she had been doing.

And gruncle Stan. He had known about this, all this time, without telling them! Dipper didn't give a shit about the fact that Stan had just tried to protect them, by keeping this form them. He knew what happened when he did that (or at least the remnants from the Zombie apocalypse should be more than enough to remind him!).

It was like all of this gave him back some of the paranoia and childish fear, form when he was twelve years old, and had trouble trusting everyone around, and what was worse; the only person who he had always been able to count on, was gone too. His sister was gone. She had ran away from the group, torn up, by the knew knowledge... Hopefully she was okay. He couldn't handle loosing her too!

"Soos, what do we do?" Dipper asked, when he reached the former handy-mans side.

"Oh, erh, I don't know, dude..." Soos said. "Sorry, man."

"We've got to think of something," Dipper said. They had been here before. They had to be able to come up with something!

Soos and Wendy exchanged looks. Wendy shook her head, and luckily, Soos got the message. They shouldn't mention Jeremy right now.

"Man, it's a shame that there isn't some way we can contact her," Soos said. "You know; wouldn't it be nice if you had some kind of device you could use to contact other people who also had a device like that?"

Wendy looked at him, with a raised eyebrow. "Soos... You just described a cellphone."

Dipper stopped. He hadn't even thought about that. "Do you think that is possible?"

Wendy and Soos stopped and turned around and once again exchanged looks, before they bot shrugged their shoulders.

Dipper would never have imagined that there was mobile coverage inside the mindscape. But then again: anything was possible in here. And they where inside Stan's mind, who was inside the Shack, where there certainly was mobile coverage. "Well, it's worth a try," Dipper mumbled and pulled out his phone.

The whole group had stopped and looked at him.

He quickly taped Mabel's name one the screen. It was ringing. It was actually ringing! Someone picked it up.

"Mabel?!" Dipper called and putted it on the speakerphone, so everyone could hear.

 _"Sorry, Shooting Star is tied up currently,"_ a piercing voice sounded, making the whole group freeze. Some of them noticed the dark, triangular shadow that slowly moved over them. "But maybe I can be of use?" All of them looked up, by the sound of the deep, dark, familiar voice, coming from above them.

"Bill!" Dipper exclaimed.


End file.
